The Secret that Lived
by WrittenWord1
Summary: As July died, Lily Potter gave birth to twins. To protect her, one of the twins was hidden in plain sight with Lily's childhood best friend, Severus Snape. How long can Harry's sister remain a secret when they both go to Hogwarts?
1. Chapter 1

"Olivia Snape!" Severus took the stairs two at a time, spurred by the deafening crash he'd heard from his daughter's bedroom, where she had been sent minutes before after her plan to use her late grandmother's wand to procure a puppy had been found out. The seven-year-old had not been able to lure the dog she'd been begging for, but she had managed to light the living room rug on fire.

When Severus reached the room, the door was open, and his dark-haired child was standing in the middle of the floor, surrounded by what remained of her furniture, which was shattered and littering the floor. Olivia was obviously shocked, and when she saw Severus in the door, her shock turned to dread written all over her face.

"I didn't mean to!" She said, panicked. "I swear! It was an accident!"

Severus silently waved his wand and watched the room put itself back together. "I have no doubt," he came into the room and picked up the girl, settling her on the bed. "We've talked about this, have we not?" The Potions Master folded his arm across his chest. His child's accidental magic tended to be explosive, no matter her emotion. He'd never heard of a child with such dramatic magical moments.

"You have to keep your emotions steady," Severus scolded. "It might help not to do things that get you in trouble." He regarded the green-eyed child on the bed. Tears were welling in her eyes. "You know better than to touch someone's wand, correct?"

Olivia nodded, the tears slipping down her cheeks. "Yes, sir."

"I thought perhaps we had left the wand-grabbing stage behind; the last time was so long ago." Severus forced himself to remain stern despite the tears. She'd set the house on fire, after all. "Using a wand is dangerous, young lady. You are not to touch one until you have your own. Apparently I didn't make that clear in the past."

Olivia squirmed on the bed. Severus really didn't like to repeat himself, and now she'd done two things he'd warned her against. "I'm sorry, Daddy."

Severus closed his eyes briefly. Those eyes and that phrase made it nearly impossible for him to keep up the disapproving father attitude. "I'm sure you are. You are going to think about how sorry you are sitting right there until dinner, when we will talk about how to keep you busy so you won't be tempted to get into trouble."

"Where's Remus?"

Severus suppressed a smirk. "Remus is not going to save you, little girl. You sit there and think about how lucky you are that you didn't burn the house down." He resisted the urge to pick her up and cuddle her and tell her everything was forgiven. There would be time for that. She had to understand that she couldn't play around with magic. There was clearly an intense magical ability in his child, and if he couldn't get her to control it, he could see many more fires in their future.

Casting a monitoring charm on her door, Severus went back downstairs, just in time to see Lupin coming through the floo.

Originally, Remus living at Prince Manor had been a decision made of circumstance. Severus had moved from his childhood home to the one inherited from his mother's family because it was easy to ward, and it fit with the façade he was creating as a Slytherin, close-to-pure-blooded household.

Remus had moved in because it was difficult for his kind to find employment. Severus had always seen Lupin as the least obnoxious of Potter's friends, and when he lost the entirely of his group in one night, Snape gave him a place to stay. Olivia had barely learned to walk at the time, and the idea of being able to keep her at home instead of at a Muggle daycare was attractive to Severus, who always wanted as little official paperwork involved with his daughter as possible.

And so they had basically raised a child together, two men who were anything but friends in childhood.

"Why does it smell like smoke?" Remus raised his eyebrows.

"Someone forgot that she is seven and cannot magically make a stray dog come into the house and be her friend." Severus ran a hand through his hair. "Instead, she lit the rug on fire." He sat heavily in his armchair.

Remus shook his head. "It would have killed you to get a dog?"

"Perhaps," Severus rolled his eyes. "Anyway, she's in her room until dinner. Which she destroyed with a burst of accidental magic, by the way. We've got to get that under control or move to a bunker of some kind."

"I'll start looking for a bunker," Remus grinned. "But in the meantime, maybe we could invest in a good sedative."

"Daddy?" The small voice came from the foot of the stairs only a split second after the minding charm alerted Severus that his little felon had broken out of her enclosure.

"Olivia Eileen…" Severus sighed and then decided that he'd really had enough of responsible parenting for the day. "Come here, reckless little doxy." There was a quick shuffle of socked feet, and he found himself with a lap full of little girl.

"I'm sorry, Daddy."

"I should hope so," Severus scolded lightly, smoothing her hair. "Where are we going to live if you burn down the house, hmm?"

"I wanted to get the puppy. He's all alone."

"I know you did," Severus shook his head. "But you can't have a puppy. And you can't do any magic at all until you go to Hogwarts." He ducked his head a bit to look at her. "We keep Grandma Eileen's wand on the mantel to honor her. But if I can't trust you to leave it alone, I'll have to put it away." He noted the appropriately guilty look in his daughter's eyes. "And as far as a puppy is concerned, we've talked about this. When you are 10, you can have a pet."

Olivia turned sad eyes on Remus, who laughed. "Don't look at me, troublemaker. I'm surprised you got off as light as you did. You must have mind control powers."

Severus rolled his eyes. The problem was, there didn't seem to be consequences that kept Olivia from doing things fueled by her savior complex. It was her damn Gryffindor blood, not that he could say it out loud. Lily's blood.

 **July 15, 1980**

Lily Potter's belly was nearly bursting, making her not only uncomfortable but short tempered. Her mood was not helped by the July heat, nor by the large number of guests that crowded her kitchen. She was in no mood for the general frivolity that was going on, not with the current climate, and not with the current size of her stomach. "Sirius Black, get your mangy feet off my furniture!" Sirius was sprawled in a kitchen chair, his feet on the seat of another chair. At her shout, he sat up, looking to James for protection.

"Don't look at me," James moved from his chair to stand beside his wife. "The woman who carries twins lays down the laws around here."

"You would think," Severus said dryly from the end of the table, "that the mutt would have the human decency to keep his feet on the floor without reminding."

"Human describes very few of you," Lily frowned at the men who ringed her table. "Can we get back to the facts at hand?"

"The facts," Remus swirled the dregs of his tea in the bottom of his cup, "are that Millicent Bagnold is a twit, and we are losing ground. We are hemorrhaging information, and if we don't find the leak, we might as well walk right into He Who Must Not Be Named's lair and give up."

"Can't imagine who the leak could be," Sirius glared at Snape, who looked back at him placidly.

"Think what you like, Black. If you'd like to trade roles in our little gang, I'm sure that the Dark Lord would imply adore having another of your family in his ranks."

"It isn't Severus," Albus Dumbledore spoke for the first time. "But the leak is the reason our group tonight is greatly limited." He looked around the table. "And we hardly have time to fight amongst ourselves." He played with his wand. "Sybill has given a prophecy."

"What else is new?" James tried unsuccessfully to get his wife to sit down.

"Occasionally," Albus said carefully, "She strikes a specific tone. And when she does, she is correct."

"So what did she say?" Remus scratched at the back of his neck.

Dumbledore turned his attention to Lily. "Have you learned what you are carrying?"

"Babies," Lily said irritably, leaning against the counter.

"I assumed," Albus said, his tone never faltering from one that would be used to invite someone to a particularly exciting party. "Boys? Girls? One of each, perhaps?"

"The latter," James answered, giving up on trying to get Lily to sit and sat himself. "The Potter seed, you know." He grinned at his contemporaries, who answered him almost universally with eye rolling. Severus continued to stare at his wand with a bored expression.

The twinkle didn't leave the oldest wizard's eye, but some of the jovial nature did leave his voice. "Troubling, to be sure."

"What's troubling?" Lily frowned at the Headmaster.

Albus tapped his wand on the table and conjured a pensieve, before pointing the wand at his temple and drawing out a long wisp of memory. Tapping the edge of the bowl, an image appeared above the liquid, like a hologram hovering for the group to see. In the image, Sybill was a fright, her head thrown back, her arms and legs gone rigid.

" _T_ _he one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..._ "

The Sybill image collapsed, and Albus carefully retrieved his memory, vanishing the pensieve. "You are due to give birth any day now, correct? Toward the end of July?"

James moved slightly, as if putting himself between his wife and Albus would change was was being insinuated. "There must be hundreds of women in Britain ready to give birth."

"How many of those women have so openly defied Voldemort?" Dumbledore ignored the flinches the went around the table at the name of evil.

"Alice Longbottom for one," Snape said quietly, his eyes now on Lily. "We hardly have the information to jump to conclusions." His usually calm voice had a hint of unease.

"Then perhaps," Dumbledore looked at Snape, "we need additional information."

Lily's green eyes met Severus's dark ones. He was helpless when it came to those eyes. Completely, maddeningly helpless. "Of course," he said quietly. "More information. And in the meantime, no information flowing out of here. There are several people who know Lily is pregnant, but I believe we are the only ones who know that there are 2 babies. Let's keep it that way."


	2. Chapter 2

Severus Snape opened the window at the insistent knocking and allowed the Hogwarts owl entry into the living room at Prince Manor. The envelope was distinctive, clearly a letter welcoming a member of the Snape household to the incoming class.

"Is that my letter?" Severus turned from the window and raised an eyebrow at the dark haired girl who bounced on the balls of her feet, looking at the owl.

"Is there, perhaps, another nearly eleven-year-old in the house?" He pretended to look about. "Are you harboring a band of orphans in a secret cupboard under the stairs?"

Olivia Snape rolled her eyes and leveled her father-taught smirk at the wizard. "Can I have it?"

"Well," Severus pretended to consider the point. "I suppose, since it is addressed to you." He handed over the letter and stood, arms crossed over his chest as she ripped the seal open. "Honestly," he mused. "It's like you were raised by wolves. Wolves that couldn't use a proper letter opener."

His daughter acted like she didn't hear the comment, pulling the letter free of its envelope. She flipped it open and scanned the contents before raising her eyes to her father's. "I'm going to Hogwarts."

Severus snorted. "As if there was any doubt." He was unable to completely suppress the pride that forced the smile to his face, however. A smile that was even further encouraged by Olivia's exuberance. Letter still in hand, she threw her arms around his waist, heedless that his arms were still folded across his chest. "Merlin, child. Give a man some warning." He let his arms fall around her.

"Can we go to Diagon Alley?"

"This minute?" Olivia felt his laugher through his robes. "Did you finish all your school work from this morning?"

Severus felt the girl shift from foot to foot. "I'll take that as a 'no, sir'." He pushed her away from him so he could look down into her face. "It is Friday, is it not? At the very least, you should be completing the Herbology assignment that Remus set for you on Wednesday."

"I'm going to have to take Herbology next year," Olivia frowned at her shoes.

"Yes, and when you do, you will look like a properly educated witch, not a lost-in-the-woods Muggle-born." Severus pressed his lips together. "There's no need for you to be unprepared when you have access to magical training. What's more, we've had this discussion."

"I can finish it tomorrow. It isn't that hard."

"Well then I'm clearly not doing my job," Remus Lupin appeared in the doorway. "I thought we agreed that you were going to finish that assignment this morning so that you could do some conditioning before practice tomorrow." Remus looked at her over his glasses. "If you want to be able to do that move we talked about, you need better leg strength."

"Any move that is referred to that generally is _not_ approved," Severus interrupted. "You will finish that assignment this afternoon. In fact, you can finish it in my office while I meet with Professor Dumbledore." He watched his daughter's face fall. "And if your work is excellent, perhaps we can visit Ollivander's on the way home." Olivia brightened considerably.

Snape snapped his fingers for Seeky to put lunch on the table. He would miss this, when she was at school, their daily lunch. It had been their routine every day of her life. It felt different, somehow, than supper. It was a break in the day that Severus held sacred. It was important to him that he create as much of a bond as possible, desperately hoping to overcome the lack of genetic ties that they shared.

It broke the Potters' hearts, of course, to send their daughter away. But the priority had to be Harry, the one that the Dark Lord feared, the one who was marked for death. So Lily gave birth, held her children, and then handed her daughter to the man no one would suspect would have her. It was too dangerous for the twins to stay together. Or even to know each other, really.

And so Olivia Eileen Snape had always been Olivia Eileen Snape. There was an immediate magical adoption, wiping all connection to her birth family. The story was that Severus had quietly had a child with Alicia Slughorn, a child of a cousin of Horace Slughorn, who had died at a convenient time. Snape had never met the woman, but it hardly mattered. A child conceived out of wedlock with a pure-blooded witch was not the scandal almost any other story could have been.

In fact, it seemed to elevate Olivia's status in the Pure-Blood community, beyond where it would have been if she was known to be the child of a Muggle-born witch. Not that, of course, Severus had any real interest in what the Malfoys and their ilk thought of his child. But his quest for her safety had often taken some unexpected turns over the past 11 years.

Severus looked across the table, and wondered, as he did so often lately, when he became the kind of person who was amused by a child's constant bouncing and chatter. Not that he was entertained by the same qualities in his classroom, of course. But the light in his life was never still or quiet, lending credence to nature over nurture in the great debate of child's personality creation.

"I have to say," the Potions Master said, amusement tinging his voice, "I thought perhaps you would not be excited to start Hogwarts. Since you've spent a large part of your life there already."

Olivia's eyes widened. "You're joking."

"My perceptive snakeling," Severus smirked, finishing the last of his lunch and looking at his daughter's still mostly-full plate. "Eat," he said firmly, frowning at the sandwich with a single bite missing.

"I'm not really—"

"Olivia." Snape's voice was low and calm, but his daughter knew better than to ignore it. Severus was absolutely mental about anything concerning her health and safety. An outside observer might think that she had some kind of intense nutritional deficiency with the level of obsession he had with meals. Diligently, Olivia finished half of the sandwich and ate the cut up apple that accompanied it. Testing the waters, she looked up to see if her consumption was enough to placate her father, and found him looking meaningfully at her milk glass. She quickly downed the last of the white liquid and was rewarded with Severus no longer hyper-focused on her plate.

"Books," Severus directed. "Herbology, and bring your Defense assignment as well, you can work on that when you finish Professor Sprout's essay." He pointed at the pile of school work on the coffee table in the living room. "I have every hope that this meeting will be brief, but when I return I expect to see the Herbology completed and some progress made on Defense."

"Remus said that he can't wait until I can use a wand."

"Lupin should keep his desires for you to grow up to himself," Severus put his arm around her and dropped a kiss onto the top of her head. "I'm investigating potions to arrest your development, and I think I'm getting close to a cure."

"A cure for what?" Olivia looked up at him.

"Children getting older." The wizard pushed her gently toward the floo, ushering her inside before joining her and tossing the powder. "Hogwarts, Snape's Office."

Olivia had spent a significant amount of time in her father's office over the years, to the point that she had a drawer in his desk to store whatever had occupied her at a given point in her life. It was compromise that Severus had made to avoid her obsessive need to "organize" the rest of his desk, a process in which his child seemed to just rearrange everything he owned. Now she was only allowed to "organize" her own drawer.

"Stay here," Severus settled Olivia in his desk chair. "Don't open the door for anyone, and I'll be back shortly." He bent to kiss the top of her head quickly before heading back through the floo to Dumbledore's office.

"Severus," Albus greeted him from behind his own desk.

Snape nodded in greeting. "You said that you had something of some urgency to discuss?"

"You know, Severus, small talk never killed anyone." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled with laughter.

"That point is surely debatable," Severus said dryly, crossing his arms.

Albus shook his head, but got to the point. "I am looking for a new Head of Slytherin House."

"What happened to Septima?" Severus eyed the older wizard suspiciously.

"Nothing," Albus said dismissively. "It's just that she fancies a break. And I thought, perhaps that you will now be an empty nester—

"Hardly," Severus rolled his eyes.

"Perhaps," Albus continued as if Snape hadn't spoken, "you would like to be around the school full time."

Severus frowned. Head of Slytherin House was not a particular life goal for him. Heads of Houses at Hogwarts generally didn't have families, and since he had been gifted with Olivia when he was just starting his teaching career, he'd hardly considered the idea.

But he had to admit, not having to leave her every evening to go back to their empty house was appealing. "You might find that I have a higher expectation of behavior for students than their previous Heads of House," he said slowly.

"I doubt you will have any trouble keeping Slytherin in order," Albus said pleasantly. "Does that mean you accept the post?"

Severus paused before nodding briefly. "I suppose on a trial basis."

"Excellent," Dumbledore said merrily. "On another front, I may need your assistance with something else. As I'm sure you know, letters were sent out today. Oddly, Harry Potter's letter is registering as not being delivered."

Severus leveled his gaze at the grey-haired wizard. "And what, pray tell, do you expect me to do about that?"

"I was hoping that you could go check on the situation. Make sure everything is well."

"I was under the impression," Severus said slowly, "that we made an agreement nearly 11 years ago, that I should have as little connection to Harry Potter as possible." He narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Your daughter has a brother, Severus."

Snape pressed his lips together and set his jaw. When he spoke, his voice was soft and measured. "Olivia Eileen Snape is an only child. A _safe_ , _secure_ only child that doesn't need any changes in her life other than coming to school."

Albus casually unwrapped a peppermint ball from the dish on his desk. "I can understand that you'd rather she didn't find out—"

"That is hardly the crux of the issue," Severus said firmly. "Although I'm sure you agree that the information would do nothing but disrupt her life. The issue," he gave an annoyed glance at the Headmaster, who was noisily crunching the candy and cleared his throat. "The issue is that we have no reason to believe that the danger has passed. Neither of us is naïve enough to think that we have seen the last of the Dark Lord."

Albus looked disappointed. "He is Lily's child as well, Severus."

"I am aware," Severus said tightly. "However Olivia is _my_ child. Lily did not entrust her to me with the expectation that I would eventually let down my guard and assume her safety." He narrowed his eyes at the Headmaster. "I'm sure the Prince Potter is perfectly fine. Perhaps playing some kind of prank about refusing his letter so see just how badly the wizarding world wants him."

"I doubt that is the case," Dumbledore said, his voice light. "But if it is, the answer obviously is that the wizarding world wants him quite a lot."

Severus rolled his eyes and excused himself tersely, stalking to the door. He occupied the walk back to his office with thoughts of how he should have made plans to send Olivia to Beauxbatons Academy. It would, of course, cause problems with their daily lunches to be sure. Perhaps a glamour, to keep Olivia from resembling Potter in any way, although it would be hard to explain to those who knew her why she suddenly looked incredibly different.

Arriving back at his office, he found Olivia, spinning wildly around in his desk chair. When Severus cleared his throat and shut the door with a meaningful click, she stopped and looked at him, giving him a dizzy smile. "That was fast."

"Professor Dumbledore is known for his brevity," Severus said dryly. "Are you finished?"

Olivia held up the parchment on the desk as an assent. "I told you it wouldn't take very long."

"Actually, I believe you said that it wasn't very hard," Severus took the parchment and looked over it. "If I didn't have to force you to complete it, I would say the work was impeccable." He ignored the eye rolling and replaced the parchment on the desk before tapping it with his wand. "I suppose you'd like to go to Diagon Alley. Perhaps buy new robes."

" _Dad_ ," Olivia made an even bigger show of rolling her eyes.

"No? Perhaps a new set of vials? A Potions textbook?" He smirked at her growing agitation. "Alright then, I suppose, if you cannot possibly think of anything else, perhaps we should go get you one of these," he held up his wand for emphasis. "If you _absolutely_ must have one."


	3. Chapter 3

"Cypress," Ollivander said, pulling the wand from its box. "An unconventional wood to be sure, but you appear to have unconventional needs, Miss Snape." As soon as the wand was lifted from its box, it jumped toward Olivia's hand. Reflexively, she reached out and captured it. Sparks rocketed from the end of the wand, circling around her head before disappearing.

"Dragon heartstring. 13 inches." Ollivander held out the box for Olivia to nestle her wand back into the velvet. "An interesting combination. Curious, to be sure."

Olivia took her boxed wand, and looked toward her father. "Curious?" Severus rolled his eyes and busied himself with counting Galleons to pay for the "curious" wand.

"Legends surround Cypress wands with heartstring cores," Ollivander went on, watching Olivia with interest. "The Martyr Wands."

Olivia started as Severus's arm came down around her shoulders with more force that seemed strictly necessary. "Thank you, Ollivander." Olivia couldn't quite place what she heard in his voice, but she hardly had much time to think about it as she was swept out of the shop and onto the street. Not 10 feet to their right was Lucius Malfoy with his white-blonde miniature in tow.

"Severus," Lucius Malfoy acknowledged, stopping and putting his hand on his son's shoulder. "Shopping for Hogwarts?"

"Of course," Severus nodded once. The relationship between the two men over the past decade had been fragile at best. It was important that Olivia be seen as his child in as many circles as possible. So few people knew that Lily had been pregnant with twins that the adoption was not necessarily hard to hide, but it wouldn't due to have any doubt in the minds of those most likely to wish her harm. "Olivia's wand has just chosen her."

"Wonderful," Lucius's voice rarely registered pleasure, and now was no exception. But since he did not sneer, Severus decided to take the man's comment as positive. "We were just about to see about Draco's wand. I hear you've accepted a new post."

Severus snorted. Dumbledore couldn't wait to announce when he got his way. "Barely an hour ago. Dumbledore would make a terrible secret keeper."

Olivia stayed silent, as she always did around her father's Slytherin friends. It was what was expected, and Severus had never done anything to debase her of the notion. While Snape was nowhere near as dictatorial with her as Mr. Malfoy was with Draco, he was still a man that had high expectations of his child. As it was, she met Draco's eyes, mirroring the question he was also silently asking. _New post_?

Olivia and Draco had been something approaching acquaintances since childhood. Olivia found him a little too uptight, and he found her a bit too outspoken, but they both had so few interactions outside of their immediate family that they made due with what they had.

Olivia could count on one hand the number of children that Severus allowed her to interact with, and when she was allowed, she always sensed that her father was concerned. More concerned, perhaps, than other parents would be.

Luckily, the interaction with the Malfoys was short, and the Snapes were once again heading down the street, toward Flourish and Blott's. "Books, and then home I should think," Severus said, guiding her into the shop. "Where did you put your book list?"

Olivia shook the list loose from where she had tucked it in the inner pocket of her robes. She desperately wanted to ask him about this business of a new post, but she was slightly afraid. She knew that no self-respecting Hogwarts student _wanted_ her father at school, but she found herself worried that he wouldn't be there.

"Standard Book of Spells," Severus was saying. "You already have a copy of that. In fact, I think you have most of this list."

"That's because you make me do too much work," Olivia tested the waters of what kind of mood Severus was in. If he was in a good mood, he would appreciate her snark and find it amusing. But if he was irritated, like he often was after having to interact with someone like Mr. Malfoy, she could very well end up on the receiving end of his sharp tongue.

"Amazing you do any work at all, lazy child," Severus quipped, turning his attention to a display of _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_. "You need this one."

"I think there should be a Quidditch class," Olivia took the book Severus handed her.

"You hardly need an excuse to become more obsessed with that infernal sport." Severus perused the potions section. "Anyway, you'll have broom lessons. Not that you need those either." He determined that there was nothing new of interest, and turned back to his daughter. "Home. And then you can ask me the question you've been pretending you aren't wondering."

When they stepped through the floo into the living room, Remus was sitting in an armchair, reading.

"Let me see it," Remus said, closing his book and sitting forward expectantly.

Olivia proudly took her new wand from its box and waved it, playfully jabbing it toward Remus who ducked instinctively before Severus snatched the piece of wood from his daughter's hand as the lamp on the side table shot back and broke against the wall. "I see we need to have a conversation about wand safety."

Olivia looked at Remus, who was sitting back up. "Sorry."

Remus made a show of checking to make sure he had all of his limbs before repairing and replacing the lamp. "Don't point your wand at anything or anyone unless you are meaning to cast a specific spell," he lectured lightly. "Why don't you carefully bring it over to me so I can see it without fearing for my life?"

Severus returned her wand, and Olivia bounced over to sit on the arm of Remus's chair, showing him the length of Cypress. "Mr. Ollivander says it's a martyr wand. What does that mean?"

"Nothing," Remus met Severus's eyes briefly. "Ollivander has always been a bit off, hasn't he?"

"Dad has a new job," Olivia responded, as if that answered the question.

"Really?" Remus frowned.

"Not so much a new job as a new position," Severus said smoothly, shaking his head at the way his daughter vaulted into discussions halfway through. "It seems that the current Head of Slytherin House is stepping down, and I've been appointed in her place." He crossed the room and effortlessly moved Olivia from the arm of the chair to the sofa.

"But what if I'm in Slytherin?" Olivia asked, kicking off her shoes and tucking her feet under her. "You can't be my Head of House."

"I'm your Head of House now," Severus pointed out. "Stop sitting on your legs, you'll cut off your circulation."

Olivia rolled her eyes but unfolded her legs. Severus nodded and continued. "Whether you are sorted into Slytherin is immaterial. We've discussed my expectations of your behavior at Hogwarts, and whether or not I am your Head of House will have no bearing on my enforcement of those expectations. If you can't conform to those expectations, I'm sure that Remus would consent to continuing to homeschool you."

"Speaking of that," Remus broke in, sensing an argument beginning. "I've been speaking with Albus myself. You know, trying to figure out what I'm going to do with my new-found free time."

There was a moment of awkward silence. It wasn't as if the little cobbled-together family hadn't known this day would come, but the idea that Remus would soon be the only constant resident of Prince Manor was more real by the day.

"Both of you, stop it," Remus broke the silence. "Despite being the housewife of this home for a decade, I actually do have other skills."

Severus rolled his eyes at the characterization of Remus's role. "If Minerva was retiring, you could be Head of Gryffindor and we could move this whole Muggle sitcom plot to Hogwarts."

"That wasn't quite the idea," Remus chuckled. "Suffice it to say that I will be kept busy this year."

"If you need to prepare, I would be okay if we didn't have lessons the rest of the summer," Olivia said, attempting to keep her voice casual and helpful.

"That is quite the sacrifice," Severus said dryly.

"An unnecessary one," Remus smirked. "But I'll give you a bit of a reprieve this Friday. I'm traveling Friday and Saturday, and so you can have a nice 3-day weekend."

Olivia knew better than to ask where Remus was going. It seemed like every month he went off somewhere, citing his need for personal time. She didn't know where he went, and she's never been offered the information.

"I'll tell you what you can do," Remus held out his hand. "Give me your wand."

Olivia handed him the piece of wood, and he tapped it with his own, murmuring a charm before handing it back to her. "I put a block on it. Now you can practice wand movements with your actual wand, but without doing any actual magic."

Olivia looked at her wand. It was a clear upgrade from the generic dowels of wood Remus had been having her practice with. She waved it about. "Will you teach me how to do a spell?"

"Tomorrow." Remus nodded. "But right now, you need to run. A good chaser is more than a wicked throwing arm, you know."

Olivia made a face, but turned to go upstairs and change into sweats. Remus turned to Severus. "Head of Slytherin, hmm? Would it kill you to do _something_ that would help people believe that you are allied with the light?"

"It might," Severus said blithely. "Anyway, you seem to have your own project lined up for the year. Going off to befriend the unicorns or something?"

Remus snorted. "You know very well that unicorn wouldn't come within fifty feet of me. It's funny, however, that you bring them up though, after my conversation with Albus. Seems there's been some strange happenings in the Forbidden Forest, including someone injuring unicorns."

Severus frowned. "Who is foolish enough to be after unicorn blood? And why would they do it under the nose of Albus Dumbledore?"

"That's what we would like to know," Remus shrugged. "I can't think of someone evil enough to kill a unicorn that I would want extending their life, which is the only real use for unicorn blood."

"You would think that," Severus rolled his eyes. "You never paid attention one moment in Potions, did you?"

Remus raised an eyebrow. "Okay then, name one thing you can do with unicorn blood if you do not have advanced potions training that would actually be worth traipsing through the Forbidden Forest for?"

Severus frowned. "Unicorn blood combined with peppermint and carbonated water makes an excellent stain remover."

Remus chuckled. "When I have a stain worth cursing my life to remove, I will certainly let you know."


	4. Chapter 4

It was pouring at Quidditch practice the next day. Not sprinkling, not drizzling. The sky was gushing huge quantities of water onto the pitch.

"I swear to Merlin," Severus said firmly before he sent her through the floo to the locker room. "If you come back sick, you are never playing this infernal game again."

Olivia smirked and straightened her practice jersey. Severus talked a good game about hating Quidditch and not understanding why she would play. He had been hard to convince when she'd wanted to try out for the select juvenile team two years before. He ranted about how she was always injured and risking her neck, and threatened to punish her every time she did a daring move in a game. Which was often.

But he also never missed a game, never failed to check her broom before she used it, never stopped picking her up and healing her when she was knocked out of the air by a Bludger. And while Severus Snape was not much for cheering, he showed obvious pride when she played well.

"Rain doesn't make you sick," Olivia picked up her broom. She knew she'd have to do something pretty terrible to receive a lifetime Quidditch ban from him. He might occasionally make her sit out a game due to some misdeed or another, but she couldn't imagine him taking it away forever.

"Perhaps not," Severus grumbled, taking the floo powder from the mantle. "But falling off of a wet broom most certainly will cause injury."

It was that line that played in Olivia's head as she fell that afternoon after taking a solid hit with a Bludger. She had been too high, she knew that. She'd been told a thousand times to stay lower where the Beaters could easily block Bludger attacks, but she liked to be up high, it helped her to figure out the patterns of the other team. When she knew where the Quaffle was going, it was much easier to capture. The charmed fake opposition team at practices were particularly easy to figure out.

What were completely unpredictable were the Bludgers, which was why she fell an extraordinary distance off a wet broom. She felt the momentary terror of losing her grip, the flailing uncertainly of falling, a startling pain of hitting the ground awkwardly, and then nothing at all.

When she regained consciousness, she was lying in her bed. Severus was standing beside her, his arms crossed over his chest, his expression one of concern and exasperation.

"Two broken ribs and a concussion," her father said quietly, when she opened her eyes. He moved to sit on the edge of the bed. "You are extremely lucky that you are a witch, young lady. You would certainly not be lying here resting comfortably using Muggle medicine." Severus frowned. "What have you been told about flying up that high? There's no reason for it, and the Beaters aren't up there to protect you."

"There _is_ a reason for it," Olivia protested.

Severus held up a hand. "I've heard the excuses. I'm tiring of scaping you off the ground."

"I hardly ever fall," Olivia tried again.

"Too often," Severus shot back. He ran his hand through his hair. "Thank Merlin First Years aren't allowed to play this infernal game. It will give me several months of peace."

"I thought maybe if I was in Slytherin—

"I would make an exception?" Severus raised his eyebrows. "It's not mine to make. And if it was, you can be sure that the age requirement would go up, not down." He straightened her already straight blankets. "Any pain?"

Olivia shook her head. "No. How do Muggles heal ribs?"

"The same way they heal concussions. The patient has to be still and quiet and wait for the body to heal itself." Severus smirked. "You'd be terrible at being a muggle patient."

Olivia made a face. "How do they even survive?"

Severus frowned. "Sometimes I wonder that if there were more natural consequences for you, I wouldn't have the trouble I have trying to keep you safe." He narrowed his eyes at her. "Perhaps I should have let you heal those ribs without magic." He was silently thankful that it didn't need to come to that. Especially the concussion. "As it is, you are going to stay in this bed until dinner." He stood up, then bent down to kiss her forehead. "It will give me a few hours of peace, anyway."

Severus left the room and went downstairs where Remus was standing at the living room window. He turned when he heard Snape's footsteps. "She's alright?"

"She's fine. Lucky that the ground was soft from the rain," Severus picked up the broom he had dropped on the table when they had arrived home. "I should put a sticking charm on this."

"Sounds illegal," Remus said lightly. "Saturday is the last game of the season. And then we'll be free of that particular worry until next summer. It's a shame I'll miss it."

"Speaking of that," Severus looked out the window. "It's about that time."

Remus nodded. "Tell her I left while she was knocked out?"

"I will," Severus nodded. He went to the basement door, and both men went down the stairs, where Severus tapped his wand against one blank wall. A door appeared, complete with a large lock. Snape conjured a heavy metal key and slid it into the lock. He pulled the door open to reveal another set of stairs. At the bottom was a metal barred door that required a separate key. Inside that door was a room lined completely with sound-proofing material. Severus handed the other man a vial, which Remus downed in one swig before handing it back, along with his wand.

"See you in the morning."

"Happy travels," Severus said dryly, because going back through the barred door, locking it, before going back up the stairs and repeating the process with the hidden door. Tapping his wand, the door turned back into a wall.

They had refined Remus's transformation procedures over the years. Their first priority was to keep Olivia in the dark, of course, along with everyone else. And obviously to keep Remus contained so that no harm would come to anyone.

They had had close calls over the past decade, almost always due to the fact that Olivia often tested rules quite a few times before deciding to actually follow them. The rule not to go down into the basement had been tested several times, once including the theft of Remus's wand from where Severus had put it in a drawer during the full moon. Olivia had been 8, not too long after the incident when she'd set the rug on fire. The combination of her disobeying the rule about taking a wand and disobeying the rule about going into the basement had caused Severus to lose his temper.

Snatching her by the arm, he sat on the stairway and delivered six firm swats to the seat of her skirt before standing her up and unleashing a scolding that left her sobbing and him holding her to his chest while he tried to slow his heart.

Severus wanted to be sure that she was old enough to understand the danger, either of being around Lupin on the full moon, or telling other people about it, before she found out. Remus's opinion was that she never needed to find out.

Severus poured himself a drink from the bottle on the mantle and looked at the Hogwarts letter that Olivia had left on the living room table. _Harry Potter's letter is registering as not being delivered._ Dumbledore's words played in his mind. He told himself that he didn't care. His responsibility was Olivia, not the boy. His agreement with the Potters had been very clear. He would protect Olivia, which meant keeping her as separate from Harry as possible.

"Dad?" Severus looked up as Olivia came into the room.

"I thought I told you to stay in bed until dinner," Severus put his drink on the table and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'm not tired, really." Olivia sat on the sofa. "And dinner is only a half hour from now."

Severus raised an eyebrow. "You, my child, do not look nearly as sorry as you should be about completely disregarding my instructions to stay on your broom." He sat beside her and leveled his best fatherly glare at her. "I should ban you from Saturday's game for your complete inability to listen to anyone. As it is, if I see you going any higher than the highest Beater, I'll pull you out, understand?"

Olivia scooted closer to him on the cushion and leaned into his side. "I hardly ever fall."

"So you've said," Severus put his arm around her. "But that isn't an answer."

"Okay. But you don't need to worry." Olivia crossed her arms and turned her face against robes.

"You simply insist on saying the most ridiculous things," Severus tapped his hand on her leg. "Anyway, just keep yourself closer to the ground." He kissed the top of her head. "Magic can only save you from so much."

"Dad?" Olivia didn't move from her place against his side.

"Yes?" Severus tilted his head back to rest against the back of the sofa. It had been a long day that showed no sign of ending any time soon.

"Where does Remus go on these trips?" Olivia spoke into folds of back fabric.

Severus was silent for a moment. "Remus has friends in far flung areas."

"Does he? I've never met any of this friends." Olivia tried to sit up straighter, but she was pinned under her father's arm.

"Well, that just shows that you don't know everything," Severus said lightly. "Anyway, he'll be back soon." He patted her leg again and pushed her up from the sofa. "Go wash your hands for dinner." Severus watched her go, his eyes careful not to rest on the basement door. _No way we'll be able to keep that secret forever_ , he thought to himself.


	5. Chapter 5

"Happy Birthday," Remus greeted Olivia when she came down the stairs and into the dining room on July 31st.

"Thank you," Olivia settled herself on her chair and took a drink from the orange juice in the glass beside her plate. "Where's Dad?"

"He's picking up your present," Remus unfolded the _Daily Prophet_. "Coal, I'm sure."

Olivia rolled her eyes. "I think that's for Christmas."

"As long as you agree that you deserve coal at some point," Remus busied himself reading.

"Are you trying to make some kind of point?" Olivia tried to bore holes in the paper with her eyes.

"Perhaps," Remus said thoughtfully, not looking up.

Olivia sighed. "Okay, so I didn't totally finish the work you left when you went away last week. But you already got on me about that."

"Maybe I'm not finished."

Olivia shook her head. "You don't do that. Dad does that."

"Does what?"

"Keeps bringing up stuff I did a long time ago." Olivia stood and went around to Remus's side of the table so she could see him. "What?"

"Funny thing," Remus said, still looking at the newspaper, "I was watching you practice in the back garden yesterday, and something seemed just a bit off. You seemed to be able to go a little bit faster than that Cleansweep of yours can take you."

"Have you seen the new Nimbus—

Remus cut her off by casually holding up a fistful of what looked like ordinary broom straws, but Olivia knew better. When she said nothing, Remus turned to look at her. "Tell me that these are a new addition."

"Of course they are," Olivia reached for the straws, but Remus held them back.

"Speed enhancers are illegal, Olivia."

"Not generally," Olivia protested. "Just in games, and I never used them in games."

"These," Remus held the straws up again, "are a bit of Dark magic. I shudder to think where you found them."

Olivia looked down at her slippers. Speed enhancers were not sold at usual Quidditch shops, because they weren't legal to use in competition. And they _were_ Dark, she knew that. But they were so much fun.

Remus reached out and tilted her face up. "Olivia Eileen Snape, if you set foot in Knockturn Alley, your father—

"I didn't!" Olivia cut in quickly. "It wasn't like that. Draco's father—

Remus's face went darker. "What have we told you about accepting anything from that man?"

"It wasn't really from him," Olivia shifted back and forth. "He gave a bunch to Draco, and Draco gave them to some of us…"

Remus shook his head. "It's so wrong you can't even pretend it wasn't." He rose and walked to the fireplace before throwing the straws into the flames.

"Are you going to tell Dad?" Olivia watched him destroy the straws.

"No. You are. When he returns." Remus looked over his reading glasses at her. "You know very well that I'm not his informant."

Olivia flopped back into her chair. They had agreed, when she was old enough to understand when she'd behaved incorrectly, that it wasn't fair for Remus to be the one who always had to tell Severus when she'd done something wrong, since he was the one at home all the time. She was not unaccustomed to hearing the phrase "you are going to tell him" from Remus. She'd rarely put him in the position where he needed to tell Severus something himself. She knew how it made him feel, and Severus always appreciated a bit of bravery in his child.

But this was going to be more difficult. Severus was generally stern and a bit dour, and but he was absolutely mental about Dark magic. Something like this was liable to ruin her birthday. But waiting to tell him might ruin it as well. Taking those straws from Draco had been a stupid idea, but the speed was so much fun. And certainly nothing that much fun could be that Dark.

Severus came through the floo just then, carrying a parcel under one arm. "Happy Birthday, Livvy." He used the nickname she'd abandoned years before, declaring it was too babyish. Sensing the tension in the room, he looked back and forth between Remus and his daughter. "What is going on?"

"Draco's dad gave him some broom speed enhancers and he gave me some," Olivia pushed the words out in a rush.

Severus raised his eyebrows, a bit taken aback at how his return was unfolding. "Did you use them?"

Olivia dropped her eyes to the table. "Just in the garden."

Severus's eyebrows continued to climb. "I'm certain that you know that there is no 'just' when it comes to Dark magic?"

"They didn't seem like a big deal—

Severus held up his hand. "Where are they?"

"Remus burned them."

Severus nodded. "Go to your room. I'll be up shortly."

Olivia bit her lip. "Yes, sir." She went back to her room, cursing stupid Draco in her head.

Severus looked at Remus and shook his head, putting the package on the table. "She always chooses the damnedest times…"

Remus smirked. "You know, as far as Dark magic goes, this isn't exactly signing up with the Dark Lord."

"You know it's a slippery slope," Severus sighed. "And what makes it worse is where she got them. We've told her never to accept anything from that man."

"Well, she accepted them from Draco," Remus said, drinking his juice.

Severus grimaced. "Just giving me a preview of what I'm about to hear?"

Remus shrugged. "Just saying that loopholes run rampant in your little snake's mind." He picked up the paper again. "Hurry, will you? I'm hungry."

Severus rolled his eyes and turned to go up the stairs, his robes swirling around him. Upstairs, he found Olivia sitting on her bed, petting Cadbury, the black cat that had been her 10th birthday gift. Severus suppressed the smile that tried to come forth at the memory that birthday. It was certainly more enjoyable than this one was turning out to be.

"Olivia Snape," Severus crossed his arms over his chest. "What have I told you about taking anything from Lucius Malfoy?"

"He gave them—

"To Draco," Severus finished, raising an eyebrow. "Were you under the impression that that was a distinction that would placate me?"

Olivia looked down. "No, sir." She played with a loose thread on her bedspread. "I didn't really think it was that bad."

"But you knew that they weren't something I'd allow you to have, even if you'd been given them by Merlin himself."

"Yeah, but that's because you don't want me to break the speed limits you set. I didn't really know they were _that_ Dark."

"But you knew that it was borderline at best," Severus frowned. "And knowing it would break my safety rules should have given you a signal to be sure." The Potions Master swept his robe out behind him and sat on the footstool that matched the armchair in the corner of her room. "Come here, Olivia."

Olivia paused. Severus was quick to deliver a smack or two, but it was more likely when he had initially discovered some kind of misbehavior. It had been a long time since her father had called her to him with _that_ look on his face. The look that said she had pushed him to a place where he thought she needed a sharper consequence than usual. " _Olivia_."

Ignoring a repeated direction was not a good idea. Olivia slid off the bed and approached the older wizard. When she got close enough, Severus reached out and took her wrist, pulling her to stand between his knees. "I'm concerned," her father said quietly, "about sending you to school when I can't trust that you will follow the rules we've talked about."

Olivia's eyes widened. "Really, Dad, I swear, I didn't think it was dangerous."

Severus nodded. "I believe that. But you know better than to take anything from the Malfoys. Dark things don't always look dark."

Olivia looked down at his lap. "I'm sorry. I just thought it would be fun."

"The magic for those straws was originally created to sabotage brooms," Severus said quietly. "It was then adapted for people to illegally win games that had money riding on them. I never want to see you involved in anything like that again. Understood?"

Olivia nodded. "I'm sorry."

Severus pressed his lips together. "This is your last warning about the Malfoys. That family uses Dark magic to brush their teeth in the morning. Don't touch anything or take anything from them. I don't want to have to have this conversation again." He leveled his stern gaze at her.

Olivia nodded, squirming under his glare. There was only one sure way out of a conversation when her father looked like that. Carefully she put her arms around his neck. "I'm sorry, Daddy." She'd stopped calling him that a year before, but occasionally went back to it either out of habit or, as in this case, because she knew it made him happy.

Severus snorted and put his arms around her waist. "Manipulative little brat," he said gruffly. "Making my hair grey by making me cross with you on your birthday."

"Were you really?" Olivia asked without moving. "Cross I mean? You didn't seem it."

Severus pushed her away to look at her face. "Would you prefer I shouted?"

Olivia smirked. "No. But you're usually a little more mental."

In reality, Severus had no desire to go "mental" over the situation. The speed enhancers really were relatively harmless, as Dark magic went. She was surely not the first wizarding child to get their hands on them. And it was her birthday after all, perhaps not the day to make mountains out of gnome-hills. "I'll keep that in mind for next time," he said dryly. "Because if there is a next time, we will be having a much sharper conversation. Do I make myself clear?"

Olivia blushed. "It's my birthday," she said lamely.

Severus snorted. "It is," he stood and draped an arm around her shoulders. "Eleven years ago today, my life became much more complicated. Considerably later in the day, as a matter of fact. Perhaps I should make you wait to open your gift until the moment of your actual birth in," he snapped open his pocket watch, "rough 14 hours?" Severus smirked at the face she made and guided her out of her room to the stairs. "Have you ever considered making my life easier? Perhaps pledging to stop doing things are clearly designed to age me before my time?"

Olivia rolled her eyes. "You love me."

"That I do, my girl." Severus chuckled and kissed her head. "That I do."


	6. Chapter 6

Olivia strolled through the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10. She hadn't done it before, of course, but the general physics of walls was up for debate in the wizarding world. It helped as well that her trunk was already securely at Hogwarts, so all she carried was her favorite black bag, magically expanded to hold her school uniform and robe. Cadbury was already at school as well, making himself comfortable in Severus's new living area. She was grateful for that, as she looked around Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, and the cats circling around their owners. Cadbury wasn't an escape artist, per se, but he disliked crowds as a general rule, and probably would have found a hiding spot as soon as the throng of people appeared.

"Now," Severus was saying, his arm securely around her shoulders. "I want you to find a seat and stay there. None of this running up and down the carriages like you were raised by hippogriffs. Here," he handed her 5 silver Sickles. "Don't fill up on sweets, there will be plenty of food at the feast that won't send you to an early grave."

"Thank you," Olivia stretched up to kiss his cheek. Even up on her toes he had to lean down and meet her halfway.

Suddenly, Severus's attention was caught by the noise coming from a group getting on the train that he recognized as Molly Weasley and an assortment of her children. Plus another. A dark-haired, green-eyed boy who looked awed and terrified at the same time.

Severus didn't need to see the boy's forehead to know that it was Harry Potter. He immediately cursed himself for not following through on the glamour he'd thought to cast on Olivia years ago. The family resemblance between his daughter and her brother was striking.

The number of people who knew that Lily had carried twins was miniscule, Severus reminded himself. Dumbledore, Lupin, Black, which was concerning, given the circumstances. But even Black didn't know what had happened to Olivia. Or even that she was named Olivia. So when he betrayed the Potters, for what reason Severus still couldn't fathom, he wouldn't have had any good information for the Dark Lord about the other child.

Anyway, no one else was at the meeting the night Lily revealed the nature of her pregnancy and Albus revealed the prophecy. As far as Severus knew, the small circle stayed small.

Severus shook himself out of his thoughts. "Behave yourself," he said, as if he hadn't been lecturing about behavior for days. "Don't forget to change into your uniform. And when you change, don't forget to put the clothes you have on now in your bag. And—"

"I promise," Olivia interrupted. "It's going to be okay."

Severus looked dubious. "Maybe I should come on with you."

"Maybe you shouldn't worry so much." Olivia sassed, putting her arms around his waist and hugging him.

"Always talking nonsense," Severus groused, but kissed the top of her head. "Go on then. I'll see you at the Sorting. Try not to become a Badger, please." He smirked at her outraged noise and sent her off toward the train.

He was lost, for a moment, in wondering where she would be sorted. Slytherin was, of course, a solid chance, having been raised by one. But that might not actually be the best idea. Having his daughter in his house might be a little too much access for her, and while he had often considered trapping her in a bubble for her whole life, in actuality, he didn't want her to miss out on all the things normal wizard kids got to do. He often wished he could have provided her with a more normal childhood, but the fear of discovery had overtaken many of the decisions he'd made early on.

He watched her board the train, turning at the top step to give him a little wave before she disappeared through the doors.

In the train, Olivia walked down the aisles between the carriages, suddenly feeling unsure. She must have been one of the last ones on, because she felt the train pull away from the station as she was still looking for a place to sit.

"Snape," Draco appeared at the door of one of the carriage. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter is in the compartment at the end. Crabbe and Goyle want to go check it out, fangirls."

Without waiting for Olivia to indicate that she was interested in coming along, he swept away down the train. Lacking another plan, Olivia followed, until Draco stopped at one of the doors. When she joined him, the carriage had two boys, a redhead and a dark-haired boy. Draco was doing what he did best, insulting people.

"You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter." Malfoy stood between Crabbe and Goyle like a king between his bodyguards. "You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

Harry Potter looked from Malfoy to Crabbe and Goyle, then, almost accidentally it seemed, his eyes met hers. "I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks." His voice was cool, but Olivia saw the uncertainty in his eyes.

Draco's body stiffened, as it always did when he was affronted. His voice went up half an octave. "I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit politer, you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys, and it'll rub off on you."

"Draco," Olivia pushed between Crabbe and the blonde boy. "Why don't you go back to your compartment?"

"You've always been too soft on the lesser amongst us, Snape." Draco sneered. "Wouldn't be surprised if you were a Hufflepuff at heart." He jerked his head at his larger companions. "Let's go. Leave her with the blood-traitors, if that's where she wants to be. Imagine what your father would say." He stalked off down the corridor, leaving Oliva standing awkwardly half in and half out of compartment.

"I'm sorry about him," she offered the boys blandly. "He's… all bluster, mostly."

"Friend of yours?" The redhead was looking contemptuously toward the door of the compartment.

"Our fathers are acquainted," Olivia said lamely.

"I'm Harry Potter. This is Ronald Weasley." the green eyed boy offered his hand and Olivia took it.

"Olivia Snape."

"I thought that's what that arse called you," Ronald said, his eyes opening wide. "Are you Professor's Snape's daughter then? My brothers say he's horrific in class."

Olivia grimaced. "He does complain about your brothers quite a bit."

"Professor Snape teaches Potions," Ronald told Harry. "He's a great big dungeon bat, from what Fred and George say."

"Probably shouldn't talk about someone's dad like that," Harry offered, looking at Olivia.

"Nothing I haven't heard before," Olivia said casually. And it wasn't, not really. She'd spent a significant amount of time at Hogwarts during her lifetime, and kids talk. Loudly. "Potions is dangerous. He's just kind of intense when it comes to safety and behavior."

"Do you want to sit with us?" Harry pointed to an empty seat. "We about to tuck into this lot," he gestured to a pile of sweets.

Olivia sat, but waved away the candy. She was just about to explain that Severus had a kind of annoying sixth sense about her eating sugar, when the compartment door opened again.

A girl with bushy brown hair and large front teeth poked her head through the opening. "Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she gestured to the boy next to her. "I'm Hermione Granger, by the way. Who are you?"

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron said around the chocolate frog he'd shoved in his mouth.

"Olivia Snape."

"Harry Potter."

"Are you really?" The bushy haired girl started to ask questions, but Olivia recognized the face of a person who was tired of having their name recognized.

"You know, I wonder if the toad is in one of the lavatories," she broke in. "You know, water and all that."

"That's a good idea," Hermione snapped her fingers. "Come along, Neville."

Harry gave Olivia a thankful look.

"Annoying, that one," Ron muttered. "Was in here earlier, being all know-it-all about everything. And who has a toad?" He glanced at a black bag on the seat next to him. "I thought Scabbers was a pants animal." Olivia could see the nose of a rat poking out of the bag.

"Did you bring an animal?" Harry asked, poking his fingers through the bars of a cage that sat next to him to pet a snowy white owl.

"Cadbury. He's my cat." Olivia tried to hide her distaste for the fact that a rat was in the compartment. "My dad took all my things to school already so I didn't have to lug everything."

"Good news for Scabbers," Harry grinned.

"So your dad is like living at school all year?" Ron asked. "Is that going to be weird?"

Olivia shrugged. "Maybe. But I've lived with him my whole life, so I guess him _not_ being there might be stranger."

"I guess you'll be in Slytherin then?" Ron's face contorted into a grimace.

"Slytherin?" Harry asked.

"There are 4 houses," Ron explained. "Malfoy from before is the kind that usually go to Slytherin. Not a witch or wizard that's gone bad that wasn't in Slytherin."

Olivia looked at her shoes. "I don't know. Ravenclaw might be nice."

Ron looked unconvinced. "Snape's about as Slytherin as they come, or so my mum says."

"Not all Slytherins are bad," Olivia protested, but even as she said it, she knew there was no use. Every one of her father's Slytherin acquaintances made her uneasy. "And anyway, my tutor was a Gryffindor."

"You didn't go to school?" Harry was looking at her strangely, but for this one, Ron was on her side.

"Lots of wizard kids don't go to school," he said affably. "Too risky about being discovered. Little wizard kids can't stop talking about magic."

"Or expecting everyone to be magical," Olivia put in. "It takes a while to realize that not everyone can make what you want appear."

"I don't know what I'll do if I'm not in Gryffindor," Ron said, shoving a chocolate frog in his mouth. "My whole family's been, probably be disowned if it were anything else."

"Is that how it works?" Harry frowned. "I don't really know anything about my parents."

"Your parents were in Gryffindor too, pretty sure. They were all in the war together, your parents and mine. And Snape, I guess, who is supposedly on our side, although that's exactly what a spy would say." Ron looked at Olivia and blushed a little bit. "Sorry. But your dad really seems as Dark as—

"What are these?" Harry interrupted, holding up the card that came in the chocolate frogs.

With Ron distracted by explaining the finer points of collecting frog cards, Olivia wondered if this what her next seven years were going to be like. Severus led a double life. She'd known it her whole life, even though no one had come right out and said it. But it was obvious that he had two distinct groups of associates. There was the group of Pure-Bloods that had been Death Eaters during the war and had come back, claiming to have been Imperiused. Then there was everyone else, who seemed wary of him.

There was only one of those groups around which she'd been taught to be quiet.

She glanced out the window at the rolling countryside. Slytherin. With Draco. Vincent. Gregory, unless they determined he was too stupid. She'd never feel totally comfortable with that group, but she wasn't sure she'd fit in elsewhere either. Severus might not be the only one living a double life this year.


	7. Chapter 7

"Snape, Olivia!" Olivia knew her name was going to be called, and yet Professor McGonagall's voice still made her jump. She glanced nervously at the head table where her father sat, but his face was schooled into a practiced blankness.

There were murmurs in the hall. Not as many as when "Potter, Harry" was called, to be sure, but her last name still called attention from the returning students.

Olivia tried to remember that she was a member of the Prince and Slughorn families, and fought to walk smoothly up to the front of the hall and sat on the stool. McGonagall carefully dropped the hat onto her head.

"Hmm," said a voice, whispering in her ear. "Deja vu, it seems. It seems like I just talked to you. Different circumstances, perhaps. Well then… courage, of course, that's a given in your lineage, I suppose. One of the better minds I've looked at today. Strong Slytherin connections, I see.

Olivia's mind swirled. She'd thought about her placement a lot over the years. When she was small, she had wanted nothing more than to be a Slytherin like her father. But as she got older she started to feel more and more uncomfortable with the Slytherins she met. There was something sinister that they seem to thrive on. Like Draco, who loved that people were a little afraid of him. Not that she was afraid of Severus, at least not usually, but when he was with Slytherins, acting like a Slytherin, she understood why others thought he was scary.

And now that he was the Head of Slytherin House, it seemed like an even worse idea. Maybe Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw would be okay. Severus appreciated intelligence.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Olivia's heart dropped into her stomach. She hadn't even finished thinking!

The Great Hall was silent. Complete, and utter silence for several beats. Then, suddenly the Gryffindor table started to clap, and she used their energy to propel herself off the stool and go toward the cheering students. She didn't look back at the head table. She wasn't sure if she would ever be able to look at him again. Gryffindor. Of all the houses…

She found herself amongst Ron, Harry, and a group of boys that had to be Ron's siblings. One of them was offering potatoes around the table as Dumbledore finished his welcome speech.

"So—," Olivia looked up to see Nearly Headless Nick floating above them. "New Gryffindors! I hope you're going to help us win the house championship this year. Gryffindors have never gone so long without winning. Slytherins have got the cup six years in a row! The Bloody Baron's becoming almost unbearable. And it's just going to get worse with Snape at the helm— bloody drill sergeant, that one."

Harry looked at Olivia sympathetically before taking another helping of roast chicken. He was thin, Olivia noticed. Not skeletal, but the way he looked at the food made her think that he hadn't always had quite enough.

The conversation had changed to blood-status. "I'm half and half," said Seamus, a boy toward the end of the table. "Me dad's a Muggle. Mom didn't tell him she was a witch 'til after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him."

Olivia laughed with the others until Nick settled next to her. "From what I hear, the Professors had real money on this year's sorting," the ghost said, looking longingly at the food. "Harry is hardly a surprise, but I think McGonnagall won big on Olivia here."

Olivia blushed and looked down at her plate as all the eyes at the table turned to her.

"I think it's brilliant," one of Ron's brothers said. "Snape can hardly have a grudge against Gryffindor this year, can he?"

Beside her, Harry looked up at the High Table before suddenly clasping his hand to his forehead and crying out.

"What?" Olivia looked at him, then at the High Table.

"Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" he asked, taking his hand off his head.

"That's my dad," Olivia said quietly. Severus wasn't so much talking to Quirrell as he was tolerating the man's rambling. Olivia could tell if the two men had been together in any other setting, Severus would already be out the door.

"Snape teaches Potions, but he doesn't want to. Everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape," Percy took a biscuit off the tray that had appeared in the middle of the table.

Ron clearly kicked Percy under the table. "What? It's true."

Dumbledore was speaking again, warning students to stay out of the third-flood corridor on the right side. Olivia tried to picture the castle to figure out what was in the section. Severus had never let her wander the castle at will, but she'd spent enough time at Hogwarts over the years to know the layout. The only thing she could think of in that area was a washroom, and maybe a storage closet or two.

She took a biscuit as well, and then tried to reach for a tart, but found her hand hit an invisible barrier. She looked around at the plates of other students, piled high with sugary treats. As an experiment, she put the biscuit back on the tray and tried to take a tart again. This time, her hand had no trouble taking a sweet. The plates had clearly been charmed to allow her to only have one dessert, a situation that had Severus written all over it.

She didn't have long to dwell on it though, because it was time for the singing of the school song, and then everyone was on their way to their Houses.

Olivia had never been in the Gryffindor common room before. As soon as she came through the portrait, she breathed a sigh of relief. The Gryffindor common room was everything that the Slytherin common room was not. It was cozy and warm with big fat armchairs. She followed the other girls up the stairs to their dormitory, where there were five four-poster beds, each with a trunk beside it.

Olivia found her trunk, and therefore, her bed, and opened the top to look for her pajamas. On the top of her folded clothing and other belongings was a piece of parchment with writing in green ink.

 _Olivia,_

 _Come to the living room before breakfast tomorrow. Sleep well._

Olivia reread the note for subtext. There was no doubt whom it was from, of course. Severus had clearly tucked it into her trunk before sending it to the Gryffindor dormitory. Possibilities swirled in Olivia's mind concerning what her father wanted to talk about. What kind of Slytherin-raised child ends up in Gryffindor? Sleep well because you'll never sleep well again?

The room was buzzing with activity, but all Olivia heard was a roaring in her ears as she opened the drawers under her bed and started to unpack her clothes.

"Olivia?" The frizzy-haired girl from the train had clearly been calling her name more than once. "My mum sent chocolate biscuits. Do you want one?" The other girl was holding out a red tin of biscuits.

Olivia blinked. "Right. Yes. Thank you." She glanced around at the other girls, who were all munching on the treats. Carefully selecting one, she sat on her bed. Severus clearly hadn't managed to charm every source of sugar in the castle.

"All set, girls?" Professor McGonagall appeared in the doorway.

"Yes, ma'am," the girls chorused.

"Good. Welcome to Gryffindor. If you need anything, your Prefect is Victoria Hooper." The professor smiled warmly. "Goodnight, girls. Sleep well." She turned and went back into the hall.

Maybe it was that last line. But Olivia decided in that moment that she couldn't possibly sleep without knowing exactly how disappointed her father was. She jumped up and followed the older witch to the top of the stairs. "Professor?"

McGonagall turned and smiled. "Olivia Snape. Shocked the wizarding world tonight, didn't we?"

Olivia blushed a bit. She had known most of the professors at Hogwarts her entire life, but McGonagall had always been a puzzle. She seemed, aside from Dumbledore, to be the only one who wasn't intimidated by her dour father in the least. "Yes, ma'am. Um…" Olivia shifted from foot to foot a bit. "My father…"

McGonagall snorted. "Is that what you are looking so nervous about? Anyone who truly knows you wasn't among the shocked this evening, my dear. And your father knows you. If there was ever a lion in snake's clothing, it is Olivia Snape." She looked at the First Year and sighed. "Severus Snape, the great communicator," she said, her voice tinged with laughter. "Come along, then." She swept down the stairs, and Olivia followed her to a door that, when opened, revealed a living space that clearly belonged to the Head of Gryffindor House.

McGonagall went to the floo and stuck her head in. "Severus? I'm sending Olivia through."

Severus must have responded, because the witch stepped back and held the pot of Floo powder out to the First Year. "You know what to do," she said knowingly.

Olivia tossed the powder into the fireplace and stepped into the flames. "Hogwarts, Snape's Residence."

Severus was standing in the middle of the living room in his shirtsleeves. "The Prodigal Daughter returns," he smirked, taking two steps to stand in front of her. "What's wrong?" He searched her face.

Olivia bit her lip, looking at her shoes. "Are you mad?"

Severus raised his eyes skyward. "Olivia Eileen Snape. You'll have ulcers by the time you come of age, at the rate you create stress." He folded his arms around her and sighed. "You, my girl, have been a Gryffindor since the day you were born. Any illusions I may have had otherwise we will chalk up to my fear of how to raise a child with no natural cunning or self-preservation instinct." He smoothed her hair, and set her away from him. "It doesn't matter what House you're sorted in. You are still the girl I raised."

Olivia crossed her arms over her stomach, a habit when she was uncomfortable. "I didn't want to disappoint you," she whispered.

"Olivia," her name came out in a rush of exasperated air. "You listen to me," he said, his voice dropping into the range he reserved for when he wanted her undivided attention. "I have never, in your entire life, been disappointed in you. I may have been disappointed in your choices, like that time you trapped a dozen garden gnomes in a box and set them up to live in our pantry." He frowned at the memory. "But I will never be disappointed in who you are." Severus pulled her back to his chest. "So you go be a damned lion," he said gruffly. "Just remember I raised you to use your head. And behave yourself." Severus squeezed her tighter.

Olivia tried to wipe her eyes on his shirt without him noticing. "Can we still have lunch tomorrow?"

Severus cleared his throat. "Every day if you want, Livvy." Severus rocked her a little in his arms. He had to force himself to let her go. "Go on," he prodded her back toward the floo. "Go to sleep, you have a big day tomorrow."

Olivia went to the floo, but turned back. "Hermione's mum sent biscuits," she said. "You didn't think about that when you did your little magic trick on the dessert plates." She smirked and went through the floo before he could respond.

Severus rolled his eyes. That child and her sweet tooth. He thought about Lily when they were young, piling whipped cream onto her pie. "You created another lion, Lily, despite my best efforts," he said aloud to himself. _Two lions_ , a nagging voice in the back of his head said.

 _Harry Potter_. Severus was not looking forward to dealing with that particular problem. Not when there were so many other problems, including the fact that the new Defense teacher was a stammering mess of a man. What went through Dumbledore's head, Snape would never know.


	8. Chapter 8

"Why were you mean to Harry today?" Olivia selected a sandwich from the tray that the house elves had laid out on the kitchen table in their dungeon residence.

"Severus? Mean?" Remus clutched his chest in mock surprise. "You must be talking about someone else!"

Snape rolled his eyes. "It's so nice that you were able to join us today," he said sarcastically. "And I was not 'mean' to Potter. I merely asked him questions he didn't know the answers to."

"He lived with Muggles," Olivia protested. "There's no way for him to know those things! _I_ don't even know those things, and I've spent my whole life with you."

"Well then you both lacked study time before school started," Severus said dryly. "And you know what a bezoar is."

"Okay, fine. But I didn't know the other stuff." Olivia rolled her eyes. "Anyway, you shouldn't be mean to him."

Severus look a long drink from his goblet. "I will run my class as I see fit," he said when he'd finished. "Potions is a dangerous subject, and it requires students to be prepared."

"Percy Weasley says you don't want to teach Potions, you want to teach Defense."

Remus choked on his sandwich.

Severus raised an eyebrow. "I don't remember discussing my career aspirations with Percy Weasley. Or any Weasley."

"What's on the agenda this afternoon?" Remus tried to change the subject as he recovered his ability to breathe.

"Hagrid invited us for tea." Olivia reached down to pet Cadbury, who was weaving himself through her legs.

"Who's 'us'?" Severus narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Harry, Ron, and me," Olivia finished the last of her sandwich. "I mean, really just Harry, but we are going to go with him."

"Are there no girls in Gryffindor?" Severus raised an eyebrow.

"Sure," Olivia shrugged. "But Ron knows things about Quidditch, and it is kind of fun doing things with Harry because he literally knows nothing. Did you know that he has never played Exploding Snap?" Olivia laughed at Harry's face when the cards started to explode. "About scorched off his eyebrows the first time."

"And you are upset that _I_ was mean to him?" Severus snorted.

"I'm trying to help him," Olivia shot back, scratching Cadbury's ears again. "Is he really okay down here? I'm afraid he might eat Ron's stupid rat. He's missing a toe already, you know. Looks like someone sliced it clean off."

"He's fine," Severus poured himself another cup of coffee. "Anyway, rats used to be very much in fashion years ago."

"Scabbers might be that old," Olivia smirked. "He's been in the family for like 10 years."

Remus frowned. "I can't imagine that's true. I've never heard of even a pet rat living more than a few years."

"Molly Weasley is probably replacing the rat in secret," Severus agreed. "Like Remus's ancient goldfish." He smirked at the other man, who rolled his eyes.

"She's finding a rat with a missing toe to replace Scabbers every few years?" Olivia looked at the men, disbelieving. "Or she's purposefully maiming a rat every few years?"

Remus considered the point. "Perhaps that is unlikely as well." He went quiet, clearly lost in thought.

"You were also mean to Neville," Olivia returned to the original conversation.

"I believe you can refer to my original comments about students endangering the rest of the class with their idiocy." Severus said blithely.

"Neville is kind of special," Olivia argued. "He's kind of scattered."

"That certainly seems to be the case," Severus agreed. "And scattered students should choose someone else's class in which to be scattered."

Olivia rolled her eyes and stood up, going around the table to give her father a one-armed hug. "I'm going to Hagrid's." She gave Remus the same quick goodbye hug. "Tell him to be nicer," she implored before going out into the corridor and to the front hall where Ron and Harry were waiting.

Their backs were to her as she came up, and Harry was talking animatedly.

"He _hates_ me. For no reason."

"Forget it," Ron assured him. "Snape's always taking points off Fred and George. He's a git. My dad said he was Dark as it gets during the war, and not everyone believes he was a spy for our side."

Olivia cleared her throat, and the boys spun around, Ron's ears going pink.

"Just for the record," she said coldly, channeling every bit of her father. "That potion could have caused serious injury. Trying to keep people safe is actually the opposite of what a Dark wizard would do." She shook her head. "You know, I've seen Hagrid's place, and I have studying to do."

Turning on her heel, she walked away, heading toward the Tower. Why couldn't she have said what every other kid would have said? _Yeah, my dad is the worst, right?_ Olivia snapped the password at the Fat Lady and went through the opening. Hermione was in one of the overstuffed armchairs, a book on her lap.

"Are you alright?"

The simplicity of the question drew Olivia up short. Usually the frizzy-haired girl talked so much that it made her head hurt. But it seemed now that Hermione Granger just wanted to know.

"Ron and Harry are… taking Potions personally." Olivia sat on one of the other chairs.

"Your dad is brilliant, isn't he?" Hermione asked, holding up the book to reveal it as her Potions text. "I mean, having a Potions Mastery in itself is difficult, but he was one of the youngest ever. And he shows up in every Potions book I bought when I went to Diagon Alley for the first time, and every book I've found in the library since."

Olivia nodded. "Yeah. He takes it really seriously."

"I read that too," Hermione closed her book. "But I feel like there's a lot more that isn't in any book. Like why he's so angry all the time."

Olivia looked at her hands. "He isn't. Not all the time." She scratched at some dry skin near her thumbnail. She wasn't sure how much she could talk about her father to this girl, who was basically a stranger. But she was listening, and no one else was. "He was a spy," she said quietly. "During the war. It really messed him up, I think. And then my mother died. He doesn't talk about her." The dry skin became a flap of skin, which started to bleed the more she picked at it. "Anyway, I think it might just be easier to let people think he's a bad person."

Hermione nodded. "What happened to your mum?"

Olivia shrugged. "She died right after I was born. There aren't even any pictures of her holding me, she was gone so quick. But I don't know much else."

Hermione looked at her thoughtfully. "I think Harry and Ron will come around, you know. Anyway, your parents all fought together, the history books say."

Olivia nodded. "The Pure Bloods were divided during the war," she said. "The Weasleys, and Slughorns, and the Potters, even though Harry's mum wasn't a Pure Blood, I suppose. But she married one. And my dad, who is a Half-Blood, but the Prince lineage was strong enough You-Know-Who to let him into his circle. Bad decision, that." She smirked a little. "But the Malfoys and Parkinsons…. They went to the other side. Anyway, The Slytherins are basically a Who's Who of the Sacred Twenty Eight, except for the Weasleys. And I guess the Prewetts, because that's where their mom comes from. Oh, and Neville."

Hermione looked at her. "How do you know all that stuff?"

Olivia shrugged. "Pure-Bloods are really into being Pure-Bloods. After the war, families like the Malfoys said that they'd been under the Imperius Curse, and kind of cozied up to my Dad because they think that he's still lying like they are."

"But he's not?" Hermione asked, her expression questioning, but not judgmental.

Olivia dug further into her finger. "I don't think so. He's a little too… moral? Remus says he is spending the rest of his life trying to make up for things he had to do to maintain his cover."

"Remus?"

"Remus Lupin. He's kind of hard to explain. He's my live-in tutor. Except he's more than that." Olivia was never sure how to explain Remus to people. "He's my other dad. Sort of."

"Not very specific," Hermione laughed.

"No," Olivia shook her head. "Anyway, he was on the Light side too."

Hermione looked at the book in her hands. "I think I've read about this world since the minute I got my letter," she said quietly. "But I feel like there is all this stuff that I won't know because I didn't grow up in it. Like I have no idea how the Blood stuff works."

Olivia shrugged. "Almost everyone is a half-blood at this point. Not too many families still believe that you have to keep the bloodlines pure. Like my grandmother was a pure-blood, but she married a Muggle, so my dad's a Half-Blood. And my mother was a Pure-Blood but she married my dad, so I'm only a Half-Blood. But people like the Malfoys don't see the difference between Half-Blood and Muggle-Borns. They all have muddy blood." She blushed. "My dad would lose his mind if he heard me say that."

"I read that somewhere. Mudbloods. It's a really foul name for someone who is Muggle-Born, like me, right?"

Olivia nodded. "That's the word he really can't stand. One time, when we were like 7, Draco said it when we were at dinner at the Malfoy's house. My dad hexed his dinner to taste like soap the rest of the night." Olivia giggled at the memory. "Anyway, I think you'll be okay. Muggle-Borns come to Hogwarts all the time."

"Are they really going to teach us to ride a broom?" Hermione asked. "I saw it on our schedule for Thursday."

"Well, they are going to teach _you_ ," Olivia laughed again. "Most of the kids from wizarding families already know how to fly. I got my first broom when I was 5."

She smiled at the memory, dim as it was from age.

"Wonderful," Hermione flopped backward against the chair back. "I've been reading about Quiddich…"

"Oh no," Olivia shook her head. "You cannot learn how to fly by reading." She stood up. "Come on, let's go."

"Where?" Hermione asked, standing tentatively.

"Madam Hooch keeps the school brooms in a shed near the Quiddich pitch. I hear they are complete trash, but we can make sure you don't embarrass yourself on Thursday."

"But isn't it against the rules?" Hermione asked nervously, following the other girl out of the Tower.

"Sure, but what's the worst thing that can happen?" Olivia shrugged. "Detention?"

Hermione looked horrified. "It would go on our permanent record."

"So?" Olivia led her out the front doors and down the steps. "Unless you want to be Minister of Magic someday, who cares?"

They reached the shed, and Olivia pulled her wand out of the sheath on her left arm. " _Alohomora_ ," she said, pointing her wand at the lock. The padlock popped open, and Olivia removed it smoothly, opening the door.

"Hey!" The girls spun around at the shout, seeing Ron and Harry walking toward them over the grass. "What are you doing?"

"None of your business," Olivia said, at the same moment as Hermione blurted- "Olivia is going to teach me to fly."

"Wicked," Ron said, poking his head into the shed. "Harry too, right? We have broom riding with Slytherin, and their all bound to know what they're doing."

Olivia pulled two brooms out of the shed and handed one to Hermione and one to Harry. "I've watched the broom classes here," she said, pulling two more brooms out for herself and Ron. "They always start with the broom on the ground and calling it up, although I have no idea why. I've never seen any witch or wizard do that." She stepped one leg over her broom. "Stand like this," she directed.

Harry and Hermione obeyed. Ron, ready to show his skill, put his leg over his broom as well and kicked off the ground, rising into the air.

Olivia rolled her eyes. "Show off." She kicked off as well, rising level with Ron. "Push off the ground," she directed the two still on the ground. "It's easy. You just have to trust it."

"What are you all doin' there?" A booming voice came across the lawn.

Olivia cursed under her breath and rotated to see Hagrid lumbering toward their group. "I thought I sent you two back to the castle," the half-giant plucked Olivia and Ron off their perches and collected all four brooms, tossing them back into the shed before locking it. "Harry doesn't know how to fly," he said to Olivia. "And I'm guessin' this one doesn't either. Are you tryin' to get someone killed?"

"We're just trying to help," Olivia protested as Hagrid ushered them away from the shed.

"Helpin' them to break ribs, 'eh Olivia?" Hagrid said knowingly. "Your Dad isn't goin' to be too happy about you flyin' illegally, or tryin' to teach other people to do it too."

"Hagrid, you don't need to tell him," Olivia assured him. "It's not Hermione's fault, it was my idea."

Hagrid made a disbelieving noise, but stopped at the stairs leading up to the castle. "Stay inside and off brooms until Madam Hooch says otherwise, got it?"

"Got it," Ron said quickly, leading the charge up the stairs and back into the castle.

"I guess I'll just have to wait and take my chances," Hermione said as they walked back to the Tower.

"Maybe it will be fine," Olivia said optimistically, not at all sure that Hermione would have any more luck with a broom than she'd seen from Muggle-Borns over the years.


	9. Chapter 9

Olivia Snape was about as angry as she'd ever been in her life. Ever since a broom-shaped package had arrived on the Gryffindor table that morning and Harry had revealed that he was allowed to play, her blood had been in a perpetual state of boiling.

She wanted to scream about the unfairness of it all to the person who had assured her that First Years had never been allowed to play for their House teams, but bringing things like that to Severus was futile. At best he would tell her that he did not have time for toddler tantrums, and at worst he would decide that she needed a lengthy lecture about being grateful for what she had, or how the world wasn't fair. Anyway, whining to him was never satisfying. It was times like this that she need a mother to commiserate with.

Without that option, Olivia decided that sulking alone during her free Friday afternoon was probably the best option. There was no one in the large room when she entered other than the librarian, so it was very satisfying to throw herself into one of the armchairs that looked comfortable but wasn't. She crossed her arms and stared at the ceiling, counting the carved moon and star shapes.

"Are you broken?" A low voice came from her right, causing her to whip her head in that direction. A tall, dark-haired boy with a Hufflepuff-colored robe was looking at her.

Olivia was momentarily stunned by the kindness in his grey eyes. "Me?"

The boy laughed a little bit. "You, or the other girl lying dejectedly on a chair."

Olivia blushed. "I'm just being… annoyed."

"You're Olivia Snape, right?" The Hufflepuff sat in the chair next to her. "I'm Cedric."

He was extremely good looking, Olivia thought to herself as she moved to sit up straighter in her chair. "Just Olivia is fine," she said, smiling a little. "The last name tends to put people off."

Cedric laughed again. "He's not so bad, your dad. Kind of intense. Not a big fan of Badgers. Might have a dozen silent ways to kill someone."

"At least that," Olivia said, her smile stronger now.

"So what are you doing here being annoyed when it's so close to the weekend?" Cedric's voice was soft and sincere. It made Olivia wonder what Severus had against Hufflepuffs.

"I'm being silly," Olivia shook her head. It was silly, she decided, when she thought of saying what she was angry about out loud.

"Probably not," Cedric shook his head.

"Harry is going to be on the Gryffindor Quidditch team," Olivia said, feeling stupid saying it. "I guess I should feel happy for him."

"Probably," Cedric said, leaning back in his chair. "Of course it kind of sucks that he gets to play his First Year and everyone else had to wait."

Olivia looked at him. "I thought Hufflepuffs were supposed to be kind."

"I thought Gryffindors were supposed to be loud," Cedric smiled at her. "So why aren't you somewhere screaming about injustice?"

Olivia shrugged. "Maybe the Sorting Hat made a mistake."

Cedric laughed out loud at that. "Hannah said you were funny."

"Hannah?"

"Hannah Abbott. Blonde First Year? Hangs out around the Gryffindors because she has a crush on that Neville kid." Cedric made a vague movement with his hand like he was showing how tall the younger Hufflepuff was. He stood up. "Come on, funny girl. There's nothing to do in the face of Quidditch injustice but eat ice cream."

"Is it true that the Hufflepuff common room has a magical ice cream machine?" Olivia followed him out of the library and toward the Hufflepuff basement.

"Of course," Cedric nodded, falling in step beside her. "A House with that many feelings needs a constant source of ice cream. Magically calorie-free, of course, otherwise we'd all look like Professor Sprout." Olivia giggled, her annoyance fading fast in the face of this new development. As they walked, she noticed other girls looking at Cedric, and in turn at her.

Cedric didn't seem to notice. He was alternating looking ahead of them and looking in her direction as they continued to talk. They were just discussing Herbology class when an abrupt end of Olivia's improving day swept down the stairs in the form of a black-haired Potions Master.

"Where are you going?" Severus eyed his daughter and Cedric, as he did a quick calculation in his head as to how many years the young man had been at Hogwarts.

"Cedric is going to show me the Hufflepuff common room." Olivia tried to sound as casual as she could.

That did not do anything to make Severus feel better about his daughter walking with an older boy. "Not today," he said shortly, his hand clamping down on her shoulder. "I need to speak with you."

"Right now?" Olivia protested, but she knew it was useless. She gave Cedric an apologetic look, which he returned with a smile and a little shrug.

In their living room, Olivia looked at Severus, annoyance back, full-force. "Dad, we just had lunch. You don't need to talk to me."

"I can talk to you any time I choose," Severus said firmly, pointing at the sofa. "Sit."

Olivia flopped backward on the cushions and put her feet on the coffee table. "What?"

Severus frowned. "I'm certain that you meant to speak more respectfully," he smacked his hand against her shoes, which she reluctantly dropped to the floor. "What has gotten into you today? You've been sulking since breakfast, and then I find you wandering the halls with a boy."

"Cedric is nice," Olivia protested.

"That's where it starts," Severus crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes slightly. "You are 11 years old. You are nowhere near old enough to be going anywhere alone with a boy."

"You don't care when I go places with Harry," Olivia crossed her own arms.

Severus cursed in his head. "You know, that's an excellent point. New rule," he raised an eyebrow, daring her to question him. "You are not to go anywhere with any boys until I say otherwise."

"Maybe I don't like boys," Olivia challenged.

Severus rolled his eyes. "That would explain why I just found you walking cozily with a young man that has been swooned over by every girl he's met since he came to Hogwarts, with your eyes all sparkling and your cheeks flushed like you ran a 5K just before I found you."

Olivia glared at him. "Harry gets to play Quidditch."

"Is that what you are all bent out of shape about?" Severus rolled his eyes. "I should have known. You might as well get used to it, my girl, this is just the first round of the rules not applying to our little prince."

"It's not fair." Olivia knew it was the wrong thing to say. Severus didn't tolerate whining and pouting, especially over things that he considered trivial, like Quidditch.

Which was why she was shocked when her father, the king of solemnity in the face of all life's disappointments, sighed, sat on the sofa, put his arm around her and said, "I know."

"What?" Olivia twisted to look at him.

Severus looked at her impassively. "It is absolutely unfair that the Headmaster is using his Potter-addled brain to change the rules for one person. You are correct."

Olivia raised her eyebrows in imitation of the sarcastic professor. "Who are you?"

Severus snorted and brushed a stray lock of hair off of her forehead. "I know you wanted to play, Livvy. And I know that watching someone else be exempt from the rule you wish you didn't have to follow is infuriating. So, I am going to allow you 2 more minutes of pouting about it before we return to the conversation about your transfer to Beauxbatons."

"Like he's so special," Olivia groused. "He'd never even been on a broom before the other day. Being a Seeker isn't even that hard. Basically do nothing, look for the gold ball, catch the gold ball. Any idiot can do that."

"I agree," Severus said evenly. "That Hufflepuff Seeker fits that description perfectly."

"Dad!"

Severus smirked. "In all seriousness," he tilted his head to look at her, "I think you need to spend more time with Miss Granger."

Olivia looked at him. "Dad. You need to relax."

Severus scowled. "You are an incredibly mouthy child. Too much of Remus's influence. You had better watch yourself, or I might decide you need closer supervision."

"When did you meet mum?" Olivia asked.

Severus paused. He couldn't remember not knowing Lily, not being in love with the green-eyed witch. But he was careful about what he told Olivia about her mother. He didn't want to lie to her, not about this, so other than her name, he tried to keep any other details true to Lily.

"You know we were friends as children," the wizard drummed his fingers against her leg. "But we were only friends until we were considerably older than you are now."

That was kind of a lie. At least there was an implication that they had ever been more than friends, which wasn't strictly true, unless you count a woman giving her child to a man who was not her father as "more".

Olivia turned so she was facing her father. "You don't have to assume I'm in love with every guy I talk to, you know."

"I do not assume that," Severus said, waving his hand dismissively. "I assume that every boy you to talk to is in love with _you_."

Olivia rolled her eyes. "Cedric seems nice."

"I'm sure he is," Severus affirmed. "And I'm sure you will see each other casually in the future."

Olivia rolled her eyes again and leaned back into his side. "Okay, Dad." It was easier, often, just to let Severus have his way, at least for the time being.


	10. Chapter 10

Olivia had to admit that Remus had been an extraordinarily good teacher to her over the years. The evidence was never as strong as during Charms, where she didn't struggle in the least to master the spells being taught. _Wingardium Leviosa_ was a walk in the park, and it wasn't just because she was from a wizarding family, as Ron proved by fumbling his way through it. It had to have been the years of fake wand practice.

Hermione managed it famously as well, to Professor Flitwick's delight and Ron's displeasure.

"It's no wonder no one can stand her," he said to Harry as the Gryffindors left class. "She's a nightmare, honestly."

Olivia saw Hermione's face go red and tears well in her eyes as she pushed past the boys and down the corridor.

"She heard you," Olivia said to Ron accusingly.

"So?" Ron challenged, though he looked a bit uncomfortable. "She's must have noticed she's got no friends."

" _I'm_ her friend," Olivia said firmly, and proceeded to shoot glares at Ron all the way through the next class, which Hermione missed.

On their way to the Halloween Feast, Olivia fell into step with Parvati Patil and Lavender, who said that Hermione was crying in the girls' bathroom and wanted to be left alone.

"You are the _worst_ kind of person," she hissed at Ron as they sat down to the Feast.

"Where's your dad?" Harry asked, scanning the head table.

"He hates Halloween," Olivia said, still glaring at Ron. "He's probably in the dungeons."

Just then, Professor Quirrell burst through the doors into the banquet hall. "Troll—in the dungeons—" he gasped. "Thought you ought to know." Then he fainted.

"Prefects," Professor Dumbledore thundered, "lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"

They were immediately swept up in a flurry of activity, pushing them out of the Great Hall and toward the Tower.

"Wait," Harry said suddenly, grabbing Olivia's arm. "You said Hermione is in the bathroom?"

Understanding swept over Olivia's face. "We have to go get her." She looked at Ron. "And you are coming with us, because you are such a prat."

Ron groaned. "Fine. But Percy had better not see us."

It turned out that Percy wasn't the person they needed to worry about.

"What is your dad doing?" Harry whispered. "Aren't the teachers supposed to be in the dungeons?"

Olivia shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe he has to get something?"

"What?" Ron challenged. "Anti-Troll Potion?"

"He's heading for the third floor," Harry said, as if Ron hadn't spoken.

"Wait." Olivia held up her hand. "Can you smell something?" She sniffed the air again, catching the scent of dirty socks and a King's Cross toilet.

And then a low grunting sounded from the end of the passage, joined with shuffling of what had to be the biggest feet Olivia had ever heard. The three Gryffindor's moved against the wall, trying to stay out of sight as the troll, twelve feet tall and the same grey color as moldy potatoes, came into view. Its feet had horns where its toenails should be, which scrapped the floor of the hall, making a sound like a rusty hinge.

The troll stopped next to a doorway and look inside. Its ears twisted, listening for something, before bending to fit through the door.

"The key is in the lock," Harry whispered. "We could lock it in."

Olivia looked at the door. Then looked around, suddenly recognizing where they were as a high, petrified scream emitted from the door. "It's the girls' bathroom," she gasped, making a mad dash toward the door.

Inside, Hermione was cowering against the far wall. The troll was advancing on her, knocking the sinks off the wall as it went. Olivia looked around wildly, and then brandished her wand.

" _Stupify!"_ She shouted, hitting the troll in the leg. The beast barely registered the attack, continuing to advance on Hermione.

" _Impedimenta_!" Olivia tried again, at the same time as Ron yelled, " _Confringo_!"

Her spell hit the troll, who staggered and slowed, but didn't fall. Ron's spell hit the ceiling and blasted out a huge section of the stone, nearly hitting Hermione as it fell.

" _Stupify_!" Olivia cried again, this time hitting her target's head, partially stunning the already compromised troll, who dropped his club.

" _Wingardium Leviosa_ ," Ron shouted from her left, and the club rose into the air before dropping solidly onto the troll's head, causing it to stagger and finally fall. "How do you guys already know that stuff?" Harry looked at Olivia and Ron as he helped Hermione to her feet.

"You're basically Muggle-born," Olivia shrugged. "You'll catch up."

"If you study more," Hermione put in, her voice still shaking from fear.

Harry rolled his eyes, but he was stopped from making a retort by a sudden slamming and loud footsteps. A moment later, Professor McGonagall came bursting into the room, followed by Severus, whose eyes swept the room and landed on Olivia, his expression going from battle-ready to shocked. Professor Quirrell came in behind the other two Professors, but almost immediately sank to the ground at the sight of the troll. Severus was in front of Olivia in a moment, his hands on her shoulders. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Dad, I swear," Olivia tried unsuccessfully to twist out of his grasp.

Professor McGonagall was livid. "What on earth were you thinking of? You're lucky you weren't killed! Why aren't you in your dormitory?"

"At least one of them has a death wish," Severus locked eyes with his daughter before looking around the lavatory, the look on his face changing to one that matched his colleague's.

"Please, Professors," Hermione stammered. "They were looking for me. I thought I could deal with the troll on my own, because I've read all about them."

Olivia winced at the look in Severus's eyes. He knew that Hermione was lying, but mercifully he let it pass, and released his daughter's shoulders to examine the troll.

"Well, in that case…" Professor McGonagall glared at the four Gryffindors. "Five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this," their Head of House said. "I'm very disappointed in you, Miss Granger. As for the rest of you, you were very lucky, however you showed great bravery. You each win Gryffindor five points. If you aren't at all hurt, you'd better return to the Tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses."

Severus looked at Potter, his eyes narrow. There was a lot he could tolerate from their little celebrity, but leading his daughter into danger did not make the list. Of course, from the sound of it, his dark-haired lion had not been coerced in any way. In fact, if she was the ring-leader, it wouldn't completely shock him. Still, it made him feel better to blame the boy who looked so exactly like James Potter.

Severus caught Olivia's arm as she tried to walk quickly past him, her eyes trained on the ground. "Nice try," he said quietly, leaving the other teachers to clean up the mess and escorting the Gryffindor into the hallway. "If your housemates are going to bring out the daredevil in you, maybe it would be best if you moved into the dungeons for the rest of the semester," he said, releasing her arm and crossing his across his chest. "In fact, five points from Gryffindor for sheer idiocy."

"Hermione was going to get hurt!" Olivia argued. "And you can't take points just because—

"Just because you blatantly disobeyed an order to go to your dormitory?" Severus glared down at her. "And why was Miss Granger in the bathroom to begin with, may I ask? Because that lie about going after the troll herself may have worked on your Head of House, but holds water about as well as a melted cauldron." Severus leveled his stare at his daughter, who tried for a moment to appear resolute, but cracked quite easily under the pressure.

"Ron said something that made her upset, and so she was crying in the bathroom."

Severus nodded. "So, as is true far too often in these situations, it was an action not as much out of heroics as it was out of guilt." He raised an eyebrow. "Which is why you couldn't have said 'Dad, there is a student crying in the lavatory'. Because I would have asked you 'why?' and you would have had to confess that your friend choices are a bit lacking." Severus pressed his lips together. "I'm not thrilled with some of the decisions I'm seeing, Olivia Eileen. I mean it, if you aren't responsible enough to conduct yourself a way that is acceptable, then you have a room waiting for you in our residence. Do I make myself clear?"

Olivia bit her lip. "But there are only like 12 First Years—

"Olivia." Severus frowned. "Taking on a troll is not up for debate. Nothing like this will happen again. I will not allow it. Now, unless you would like to go downstairs and have a sharper conversation than we are right now, all I want to hear from you is 'yes, sir' and see obedient behavior."

"Yes, sir," Olivia's voice dripped with attitude, and she didn't meet the taller wizard's eyes, which didn't go unnoticed.

Snape closed the short distance between them and pushed her chin up to look at him. "Restriction. From now until Monday morning. Go downstairs to your room. Now."

"Dad—

Severus gave a frustrated growl, spun Olivia around toward the dungeons pushed her more roughly than she could remember him doing before.

In her room, she flopped onto her bed, glaring at the ceiling. All kinds of things she wanted to say to her father bubbled through her mind, whirling so frantically as the time went by that when she heard the door open, she started ranting before she even sat up.

"You can't treat me like a little kid! Even McGonagall thought that it was—

"Reckless?"

Olivia fell silent and sat up at Remus's voice. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought I would drop by. When Severus wasn't here, I went looking, and found that you had given him another reason to hate his least favorite holiday." Remus placed the plate that he was carrying on her desk and crossed his arms over his chest.

"He overreacted," Olivia flopped back.

"Maybe you shouldn't do reckless, dangerous things," Remus said unsympathetically. "And from what I saw in that bathroom, he did not overreact." He pointed at the plate. "Your father wanted you to eat."

Olivia glared at him. "If it hadn't been Halloween—

"Even if it wasn't, it still would have been a stupid thing to do." Remus interrupted. "If I were you, I would eat, get ready for bed, and show your father exactly how obedient you can be. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes if he comes down here and you've continued to disobey him."

Olivia continued to glare, forcefully stabbing her roasted chicken and shoving a piece into her mouth.

Remus rolled his eyes. "At least sit down and eat like you were raised properly."

Olivia took another bite of chicken, but didn't sit. "I'm not a baby."

Remus frowned. "I would also suggest that you change your attitude before your father arrives. He's about as angry as I've ever seen him, and telling him that he can't treat you like a child while you are throwing a tantrum like a child is not going to help things."

"It certainly is not," Severus appeared in the doorway. "And since you are _my_ child, I will continue to treat you like a disobedient, heedless, thoughtless child when you act like one." He pointed at the bathroom that adjoined her room. "Finish eating immediately, then shower and get ready for bed. And be quick about it."

Severus's expression and tone was not to be messed with, and Olivia decided she'd been brave enough for one day. She ate the rest of her food as quickly as her pride would let her, and then escaped to the bathroom. Severus watched her go and close the door before coming all the way into the room and sitting in the armchair in the corner.

"I think it's nice that you made her room down here look like her room at home," Remus said, sitting on the windowsill. "Right down to the fake window."

"It's actually not," Severus said, leaning back in the chair. "The door is set up kind of like a vanishing cabinet. We are literally in her room at Prince Manor right now. We could jump out the window and escape right now."

Remus laughed. "Does Albus know you created yet another escape hatch in this castle?"

"As if he's done anything to assure safety. This whole castle is a deathtrap. Trolls running about." Severus shook his head. "What am I going to do with her?"

"Changes the subject like one of those Muggle school bells," Remus looked at the door of the bathroom. "I don't know. Get the whole story first?"

"What story?" Severus tapped his long fingers against the arm of the chair. "My daughter went wandering in the castle with a troll on the loose, and when she found the troll, she decided to fight it. Damn Gryffindor—

"You're going to have to stop that, you know." Remus interrupted.

"What?" Severus glared.

"Blaming all the dangerous parts of her personality on her blood and not that man who raised her." Remus said calmly. "You should stop that."

Severus made a low growling noise in the back of his throat. "I should have made her more afraid. Of the world. Of me. You know she stood in front of me and tried to argue that she wasn't wrong?"

"She was still arguing with you when I got here," Remus chuckled. "Face it, Sev, you raised a mule of a child."

" _We_ raised a mule of a child," Severus closed his eyes. "You are at least 30% at fault here."

Remus laughed again, but his retort was interrupted by Olivia coming out of the bathroom. "I'm going to sit in the living room," he said, pushing himself off the sill. "If there's bloodshed, someone shout for me." He went out and shut the door behind him.

Severus looked at the red-pajama wearing eleven-year-old across the room. "Come here, Olivia."

Olivia approached him with some trepidation. He seemed calmer than he had been, but sometimes with Severus that was just the calm before the storm. When she reached his side, she looked down at her socked feet.

"At least you're uneasy now. I suppose that's something." Severus raised an eyebrow. "I said to 'come here', not to stand safely next to me until you can determine how angry I am."

"I'm not a little kid," Olivia said lamely as she let herself be pulled onto his lap.

"You should just consider yourself lucky that you are sitting on my knee and not lying across it," Severus said sternly. "And if you would like to keep being lucky, you are going to tell me exactly what happened tonight. Leave nothing out."

Olivia suddenly felt extremely tired, and a little bit afraid, as the adrenaline left her body. She put her face in her father's robes, and let emotions overtake her. She felt herself begin to shake, and tears came.

"Olivia?" Severus's voice shifted as his arms closed around her. "Foolish brat. What am I supposed to do with you when you punish yourself so effectively?" He sighed and rocked her back and forth. "Alright, my girl. Tell me what happened."

The story poured out, and Severus listened, biting his tongue multiple times. He needed to hear the whole thing, and scolding her was bound to shut down the flow of information. When the story reached his own entry, Olivia trailed off, cautiously looking up at him, trying to gauge his level of irritation.

"Well." Severus drummed his fingers on her leg. "I suppose I should be proud that you chose to at least use your head instead of blasting the damn ceiling."

"It was Ron that really finished it off," Olivia said, looking at her hand that was scratching absently at his robe.

"With more practice, you'll be able to stun something of that size without a problem," Severus assured. "Not that you should be in a situation that warrants it." He narrowed his eyes at her. "But even so, Remus will be proud to hear that his Defense training was not in vain."

Olivia smiled a little, and Severus shifted her to see her face. "No more trolls. You know better. You know to get me when something is dangerous. What would I had done if you'd been smashed by a troll, hmm?"

Olivia could hear his heart racing in his chest. "Killed me?" she offered jokingly.

Severus's frown was fierce. "Your safety is not a joke, young lady. It's never been a joke," he scolded softly, tightening his arms around her. "Something you will have plenty of time to think about over the next few days."

"I am supposed to go see Hagrid tomorrow afternoon," Olivia said, knowing that it wouldn't make the slightest difference.

"You are not unfamiliar with the terms of restriction in this house, Olivia Snape."

"It's a castle, really," Olivia muttered, turning her face back into his shoulder.

Severus raised his eyes to the ceiling. "An early bedtime for you tonight," he said decidedly, standing her up and ushering her to the bed, pulling back the blankets.

"Dad?" Olivia climbed into bed and sat looking at him.

"Yes?" Severus gestured for her to lie back.

"I'm sorry it happened on Halloween."

Severus paused for a moment, then snorted and shook his head. "Of course you are. You aren't sorry you took ten years off my life, but you are sorry you did it on the wrong day." He pulled the covers up to her chin. "Goodnight, Livvy." He kissed her forehead and left the room.

In the living room, Remus was sitting on the sofa, his legs stretched out in front of him. "No bloodshed?"

Severus shook his head. "She isn't sorry she fought a mountain troll, but she is sorry she did it on Halloween."

Remus snorted. "I think it's strange that she doesn't question why you hate Halloween."

"She just assumes that I'm a curmudgeon," Severus waved his wand and tea appeared. "Which I am."

"Truer words have never been spoken," Remus jibed.

Severus poured tea and handed a cup to Remus. "Honestly, when I went into that lavatory and saw her in the same room with that troll, I thought she was going to die. It didn't seem to matter to my brain that the troll was clearly incapacitated. This damn holiday."

Remus took a long drink of tea. "It's almost over. It could _be_ over if you just took some Dreamless Sleep and went to bed." He looked at his friend, knowing that he would never take that advice. Severus did one thing on Halloween, and that was mourn Lily. It had been that way since her death, and Remus despaired that it would ever be different.


	11. Chapter 11

A week later on Saturday, Severus wasn't at breakfast. It was such an odd occurrence that Olivia was distracted from looking at Cedric, which is what she'd taken to doing at meals. Concerned that he might be dead, since that was the only logical explanation, she went down to the dungeons. Finding the living room empty, she opened the door to Severus private study, and was greeted with a startling sight.

Severus was sitting in one of the chairs in front of his desk, with his robes pulled up and one of his pant legs rolled up to his knee. The exposed less was bloody and mangled. Remus was sitting in the other chair, handing him bandages.

"Blasted thing," Severus was saying. "How are you supposed to keep your eyes on all three heads at once?"

"What happened?" Olivia asked, coming all the way into the room and startling Remus so much he dropped the handful of bandages.

"Olivia!" Severus dropped his robes in a failed attempt to hide his leg. "Get out!" He frowned fiercely at her.

"Did you… did that dog bite you?

"How do you—" Remus gathered the bandages off the floor and stood.

"There's a three-headed dog in the third floor corridor," Olivia continued to stare at her father.

"Out—" Severus snapped, pointing at the door. "Out."

"Dad—"

"Out! Now!" Severus clicked his fingers toward the door and Olivia backed out of the study and fled out of their residence and up the stairs to the Tower.

Her mind whirled. _Why would Severus be trying to get by that dog?_

When she reached the common room, the place was alive with people getting ready to go down to the pitch for the first Quidditch match of the year. Olivia had done her best to squelch her intense jealousy concerning the fact that Harry, who had absolutely Quidditch experience, was allowed to play for the Gryffindor team while she had three years of select team experience and she had to sit the year out. She'd done her best, but the feeling wasn't totally gone.

She followed her Housemates out to the pitch and settled into the stands with Ron and Hermione. She looked across to where the Slytherins were sitting, her father in the middle. Clearly he had finished patching himself up.

The game started uneventfully. Hermione kept asking questions that grated on Olivia's already frayed nerves, but she tried to answer them without the bite she wanted to use.

"What's wrong with Harry?" Ron asked suddenly. Olivia took her attention off of Hermione and looked up at Harry, whose broom was clearly trying to buck him off. The broom was zigzagging, violently trying to throw him off. But that didn't make sense. Brooms didn't try to unseat their riders.

"If I didn' know better, I'd say he'd lost control of his broom," Hagrid commented from behind them.

"Did something happen to it when Flint blocked him?" Hermione looked at Harry's bucking form with horror.

"Can't have," Hagrid said. "Can't nothing interfere with a broomstick except powerful Dark magic— no kid could do that to a Nimbus Two Thousand."

"No kid without the right connections," Olivia muttered, flashing back to the Dark speed enhancers that Lucius had handed to his son like Bertie's Every Flavor Beans.

"Look," Hermione handed her binoculars to Ron and pointed across the pitch. Olivia looked in that direction as well, pulling her own binoculars to her eyes, and finding immediately what Hermione was looking at.

Severus. His eyes fixed on Harry and muttering nonstop under his breath.

"He's doing something— jinxing the broom," said Hermione.

"No he isn't," Olivia protested, but there was a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"Where's his wand?" Hermione asked.

"Wandless magic," Ron said, turning the binoculars back toward Harry.

Hermione got up and started around the pitch to the other side. Olivia dropped her binoculars, watching the rest of the team try to get Harry off his broom to no avail. Slytherin's Chaser scored 5 times while everyone was distracted, a move that Olivia found particularly low. Ron was quietly begging Hermione to go faster until she made it to the row behind Severus, knocking Professor Quirrell headfirst into the row in front. Olivia looked through her binoculars again, watching Hermione pull out her wand and point it at the hem of the Potion Master's robes, bright blue flames shooting onto the fabric.

Severus moved sharply, feeling the flames on his leg before Hermione scooped the flames into a little glass jar and scrambled back the way she'd come.

In the air, Harry was suddenly able to clamber back onto his broom. And suddenly he was speeding toward the ground. A moment later, he clapped his hand to his mouth as though he was about to be sick, and hit the ground on all fours—coughed—and something gold fell into his hand.

The stands erupted, and Olivia felt herself being lifted out of the fray by Hagrid, who had also scooped up and Hermione. "Come on, Harry," Hagrid shouted, and they were off, out of the throng a people and to Hagrid's hut.

"It was Snape," Ron said when they got there. "We saw him. He was cursing Harry's broomstick."

"Rubbish," Hagrid shook his head. "Why would Snape do something like that?"

Harry and Ron looked at Olivia, and then at each other. "He was on the third floor the night of the Troll," Harry started. "I think he's trying to get whatever that three-headed dog is hiding, but he can't get past it."

Olivia's stomach dropped. Her father's bloody leg was burned into her memory.

"How do you know about Fluffy?" Hagrid spun around from where he was making tea.

"Fluffy?" Hermione was incredulous.

"Yeah. He's mine. Bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year. I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the—

"What?" Harry asked eagerly.

Hagrid shook his head. "That's top secret, that is. Don't ask me anymore."

"But Snape is trying to steal it," Ron protested, looking at Olivia again, like he was waiting for her to protest.

"Rubbish," Hagrid said again. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher. He wouldn't do something like that, and he wouldn't try an' kill a student. Now you listen to me, all of you. Yer meddlin' in things that don't concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget the dog, an' you forget what it's guardin'. That's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicholas Flamel—

The Gryffindors looked at each other. So there was someone named Nicholas Flamel involved.

"Hagrid's right," Olivia said on their way back to the castle. "My Dad wouldn't try to kill you, Harry."

"Then why did Harry get control back of his broom after I distracted Snape?" Hermione asked.

"Your dad hates me," Harry put in.

"I'll talk to him," Olivia countered. "I'm sure it's not what it looks like."

But she actually wasn't sure. Maybe if it had been the day before, and she hadn't seen evidence that Severus had been trying to evade "Fluffy", or before she knew that the giant dog was hiding something important. Severus had always had his secrets, but this was becoming too complicated a situation to believe that those secrets were harmless.

Olivia didn't have to seek out her father. He was waiting in the corridor on the way to the Tower. "Downstairs," Severus said simply, his hand closing firmly on the base of her neck and moving her down the hall to the stairwell.

"Dad," Olivia hissed, trying to twist out of his grasp.

"Olivia Snape, unless the next words out of your mouth are a plausible explanation for why you know about an animal being housed in a restricted part of the castle, you should just be quiet."

" I didn't see it myself," Olivia said, her words coming out in a rush. "Harry saw Fluffy—

"Fluffy?" Severus's voice was so incredulous that Olivia assumed his eyebrows had taken leave of his face.

They reached the door to their living room, and Severus ushered her inside. "How, may I ask, did Potter end up anywhere near that beast?"

"Draco challenged him to a duel," Olivia said, this time successfully pulling away from the Potions Master and putting some space between them.

Severus's expression darkened considerably. _Of all the idiotic_ … he groused in his head. "And I suppose this duel took place in the third floor corridor?"

"I guess it didn't really 'take place' anywhere," Olivia shrugged, "because Draco didn't show up. But it was supposed to be there, yeah."

Severus sat heavily on the sofa. "But you were never near it?"

"No, sir. I swear." Olivia shook her head rapidly. There was no way she would ever see the light of day again if Severus thought she had been interacting with Fluffy. Of course, he was the one that had been bitten by the thing. "Dad… What is Fluffy guarding?"

"What makes you think he's guarding anything?" Severus evaded.

"Why else would he be there? And why else would be have bitten you?" Olivia looked at his now trouser-covered legs.

Severus frowned. " _Fluffy_ is none of your concern. You can put any great adventurous ideas that you or your friends have out of your mind."

Olivia shifted uncomfortably.

" _Olivia_ ," Severus's voice dropped into the danger zone that might as well have been a growl.

" _Dad,_ " Olivia mimicked his voice without fully thinking through the ramifications of such a blatant act of disrespect.

Severus was up from the sofa faster than Olivia had ever seen him, his nose a millimeter from her own. "Your room. _Now_."

Olivia fled, her stomach churning. This was not the way a Saturday was supposed to go. She was used to Severus keeping secrets. It was part of him, the rooms she couldn't enter, and the people she couldn't talk to. But there was something different about this. He wasn't even pretending like he was keeping something from her for a good reason; he was just telling her to mind her own business.

She felt uneasy, as she always did when he was upset with her. But she was also angry. He was mixed up in something terrible, something that was obviously dangerous, possibly not just to himself. She never would have believed that Severus would have cursed Harry's broom, and maybe she still didn't really… but sometimes, like when she'd found him with Remus that morning, she wondered if his anger made him capable of things she couldn't imagine.


	12. Chapter 12

They didn't speak for the rest of the weekend. Olivia wasn't surprised. Remus once characterized Severus's anger as "a wildfire that destroys everything and then turns back on itself". He claimed that the other man was actually decidedly calmer, or at least more controlled, as a father than he had been as a young man.

"Really, you are almost always a kill-switch with him," Remus had continued. "I don't know anyone or anything else that can take him from hopping-mad to calm so fast."

Her powers, however, didn't seem to work this time. It might have been because she hadn't seen him since he'd sent her to her room Saturday afternoon. Dinner had arrived in her room, followed by breakfast the next morning. Then lunch. No sign of Severus, no sign of what she was supposed to do other than wait.

Olivia went to the window, glaring out into the yard. She really needed to talk to Remus. Sometimes, when Severus was stuck in that wildfire of anger, Remus could talk him out of it. Especially when the anger was due to something she didn't really understand, and she felt like this was one of those times. She hadn't really done anything except sass him, which certainly wouldn't normally earn her the shunning she seemed to be receiving.

An idea suddenly occurred to her. The room was really at Prince Manor. The window wasn't charmed to show the outside, it really showed their back garden. Remus was at Prince Manor, which meant he was really just outside her room…

Opening the window was surprisingly easy. She half expected it to be locked, but then again it never had been when she was growing up. Pulling herself up and out of the window was harder, and she landed with hardly any grace in the grass. Brushing herself off, she went along the back of the house until she reached the door that led to the room that was meant to be used as a breakfast and tea room, but had been Olivia's play room as a child and was now a kind of second sitting room.

The door obviously hadn't been opened in recent memory, because a table had been placed too close to the door's path. When she opened it, the door jostled the table, causing the vase that sat on it to sway and fall, crashing to the hardwood floor.

Remus appeared in the doorway to the hallway, wand drawn. "Olivia!" He pointed his wand at the vase, repairing and replacing it before crossing the room and closing the door. "What are you doing here?" Remus sheathed his wand and put his arm around her, ushering her into the hallway and toward the living room. "Why did you come from the garden?"

"I jumped out my window," Olivia said, a little nervously. Maybe this wasn't the best idea. Having both men angry with her was not going to make her weekend any better.

Remus frowned, "Sit." His voice was gentle, but worried. "I'm going to firecall your father, and then you can tell me what is going on that has you leaping from windows."

"Remus, don't—

"Olivia," Remus held up his hand. "You knew as soon as I saw you I would call him."

She did know that. Remus had always had her back over the years, but he didn't help her hide anything from Severus. Not the time she accidentally set the sofa on fire, and not now. Remus went to the floo, casting a silencing charm. Olivia watched him talking for a moment before his shoulders rose and fell in a deep sigh, and he stepped into the fireplace, clearly going to have an in-person conversation.

Olivia fully expected Severus to come back with him. In fact, she expected him to come charging through the floo as soon as Remus called him. But Remus must have made him think better of it, because the sandy-haired man came back alone, cancelling the silencing charm.

"Were you trying to make him angry?" Remus raised his eyebrows. "Is this a 'negative attention is better than no attention' scenario?"

Olivia shrugged. "He won't talk to me. He was mad over nothing. What was I supposed to do?"

Remus sighed and sat next to her. "Alight. Tell me what happened."

"You know some of it," Olivia leaned back and let herself slip on the sofa cushion a little bit. "He screamed at me to get out the other day. And then during the game…" she debated in her head what to say. Could she come right out and accuse her father of trying to kill Harry? Could she really say that out loud?

"Hermione thinks he was trying to curse Harry's broom," she said finally. She explained what they had seen during the game and how Hermione had distracted the Potions Master.

"Ridiculous," Remus said immediately. "Why would he do something like that?"

Olivia bit her lower lip. "I don't think he likes Harry very much. Like he might really hate him."

Remus paused. "Your father does not hate an eleven-year-old boy. And he certainly didn't try to kill that eleven-year-old boy. I'm certain that there is another explanation. However," he dipped his head to look at her as if he were doing so over the reading glasses he wasn't wearing. "He doesn't need to explain himself to you. Not everything is your business."

"It's my business when he gets mad about nothing," Olivia crossed her arms over her chest. "I didn't even do anything."

Remus sighed. "Severus has a lot on his mind. And again, everything that is on his mind isn't your business. But you could do us all a favor and at least try not to irritate him."

"That seems like a lot to ask," Severus's voice was low as he stepped out of the fireplace.

"I thought you were going to stay at school and cool off," Remus looked at the taller man.

"I am 'cool'," Severus said tightly. "And now I'd like to know why my daughter is hundreds of miles away from where she is supposed to be."

"Technically I'm only supposed to be upstairs," Olivia challenged.

" _That_ is what I'm talking about," Remus said fiercely.

Severus suddenly looked older than his thirty-one years. He met Remus's eyes, and something passed between them that apparently caused Remus to no longer fear that they would kill each other. He stood and allowed Severus to take the seat beside his daughter and not-so-casually excused himself to another room.

"First of all," Severus said slowly, meeting her eyes, "That window will be sealed as soon as we are through with this conversation. And if you ever leave the residence you are supposed to be in again, without my express permission, I will do what I should have done long ago and require you to wear a tracking device of some kind." He paused for a long moment. "You startled me," Severus used his index finger to still her hand that was picking at the cuticles on the other. "Yesterday morning. And then you chose to be cheeky about a situation that is anything but a joke."

"Dad—

Severus moved his finger from her hand to the air. "Hogwarts is not always a safe place, Olivia. Right now, there are certainly things I want to keep you away from. But I can't do that if you are wandering around with Potter and acting like giant dogs are no big deal."

"Were you cursing Harry's broom?"

Severus was shocked into silence. When he finally regained his ability to speak, he had worked through the situation in his head. "Which one of you set my robes on fire?" He frowned at her. "It has to be you or Granger, no one else in your little danger squad would know how to manage that kind of spell."

"Dad, please answer my question."

Severus caught the fear in his daughter's eyes. "Olivia. Of course not. How could you think that?"

"Then what were you doing?"

"Trying to keep the Savior of the Wizarding World in the air," Snape frowned. "Now you answer my question."

"Hermione. But she was just trying to save Harry."

Severus closed his eyes and counted backward from ten in his head. Then he did it again.

Olivia used his silence as an opportunity to move closer to him, putting her arms around his waist. "I'm sorry that your job sucks."

With his eyes still closed, Severus leaned back against the back cushion of the sofa. "Your language," he scolded without much conviction, "is deplorable."

Olivia folded her legs up and leaned fully into his side. "Can we stay here tonight?"

"You have Defense in the morning," Severus put his arm around her curled form.

"Quirrell is so boring," Olivia complained. "Remus would be 100% better at that job."

" _Professor_ Quirrell," Snape corrected. "And you only think he's boring because you've had substantially more defense training than the average student."


	13. Chapter 13

"A blood ward," Quirrell said to the class, stuttering even more than usual, "is a powerful form of magic. It can be used to protect someone against almost anything, but it requires an ultimate sacrifice of someone with which you share blood." He pulled a tray of small vials from a cupboard. "The act of bloodshed has a long history in magic. While creating a blood ward requires a person to give their life for another, limited protection spells can be created by much less final means, as long as the person shares blood. Today, we are going to find out who in this room has enough common blood to create a blood talisman for each other." He held up a tiny glass bulb filled with red liquid on a string. "Some of you may leave this room more safe than you were when you entered."

With a wave of his wand, the vials flew out of the tray and landed lightly in front of each student. "There is a spell," he said as the vials sorted themselves, "that allows you to puncture skin enough to draw blood. But I was told that I am not allowed to teach spells that draw blood to First Years. So instead, we will have to embrace the archaic Muggle method. Needles." With the same wave, small needles shot across the room to each Gryffindor. "These needles are steel, not silver, so the vampires and werewolves in the room can remain unconcerned."

Olivia wasn't really sure if the man was trying to be funny. His comedic timing was certainly a bit off, due to the stuttering. But his cadence resembled Severus's when he thought he was being funny.

She took the needle and stabbed it into her finger. Next to her, Hermione winced and then watched the blood drop from Olivia's finger with distaste. "Is this really necessary?"

"Really? This is where you draw the line?" Olivia laughed. "You will do _anything_ for a grade. You'll stay up all night, you'll steal books from the Restricted Section, you'll interrupt my dad to ask a question, which is basically suicide, but poking yourself in the finger is too much?"

"Hurry now," Quirrell encouraged. "We don't want some people's blood drying while others are trying to get to the point, as one might say."

Olivia rolled her eyes. This was Ravenclaw humor for sure. She watched with interest as Hermione finally pricked her finger. Once everyone had done so, Quirrell raised his wand. " _Colligationis_ ," he said, flicking his wand at the class.

The vials started to glow different colors.

"Look around the room," Quirrell said, walking down the center aisle. "If your vial matches another vial in color, it means you share lineage. The brighter the color, the closer the match."

Olivia barely bothered to look around the room. She was more likely to share blood with a classroom of Slytherins. Her vial was glowing a deep red. Glancing down the row, she saw Ron's vial glowing red as well, although less vibrantly. That wasn't surprising. All the pure blooded families were related somewhere along the line.

Next to her, Hermione's vial was a pale periwinkle, not matching anyone else in the room. Then her gaze fell on Harry's vial. It glowed deep red. An exact match to her own.

Severus strode down the hall, robes billowing behind him. Cleaning up memories after the Defense lesson had been a trial, and every minute it took, he dreaded dealing with the student in his living room. It was troubling that Quirrell had introduced such a lesson to begin with. Blood wards were not First Year magic to be sure. If his suspicions about Quirrell's alliances were correct, this lesson was likely an exercise in discovering how many people at Hogwarts shared genetic ties to Potter. It was likely that the turbaned man had gotten more than he bargained for with the experiment.

When he arrived in their residence, Olivia was pacing the living room. "Dad—

"Olivia," Severus held up a hand. "I need you to listen to me." He suddenly wasn't sure what do with his hands, or what to say. He settled for clasping his fingers behind his back.

Olivia waited a beat, and when he said nothing, her forehead wrinkled. "Our blood matched _exactly_ , Dad. That would only happen if we were closely related. Like _the same family_ related."

Severus ran a hand over his face. "You have the same biological parents," he said quietly.

Olivia had known it, somehow, before he said it. The moment she'd seen the potion. Not that there were many other options. Not like she could have been his mother or something.

"So if Harry is your son—

"Olivia." Her name came out so softly that if she hadn't been so heightened, every nerve exposed, she might not have heard it. Exhaustion dripped from every syllable. "He's not."

Olivia felt her world spin. "But we have the same father—

"You have the same biological parents," Severus repeated. He'd dreaded this conversation since the day she was born, and now that it was here, it was so much worse than he had imagined. "But I like to believe that I am your father, since I've raised you all this time."

Olivia sat hard on the sofa, her eyes burning. She wasn't totally sure which of the tumult of emotions she was feeling she should act on. She was so angry at the man who stood in the middle of the room. But yet she was so confused and worried and a little bit scared that she desperately wanted him to hold her and tell her that everything was going to be fine.

"Why?" Olivia whispered, taking a pillow from the end of the sofa and hugging it to her chest.

Severus approached carefully. In his nightmares, she had stormed out by now. Or dissolved into a puddle. She was showing her Slytherin childhood at that moment, and Snape couldn't decide if it was better or worse than all of the dramatic reactions he'd anticipated. He sat on the cushion beside her, trying to give her space but wanting to be close to his child. "This situation is so complex, Olivia. You'll have to be more specific."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Severus pressed his lips together. "Tell you what? That the only father you've ever known isn't biologically related to you?"

"All of it. My mother is dead. I'm adopted. I have a brother."

"You knew your mother was dead," Severus countered.

"Convenient for you, wasn't it?" Olivia felt the anger bubble up.

Severus scowled. "Not particularly, no. I loved your mother very much."

"Which one?" Olivia held the pillow tighter and scooted closer to the armrest.

Severus sighed. "When Lily was pregnant, the Dark Lord was well on his way to taking over the wizarding world. We had reason to believe that he would target the Potter family, and most specifically Harry."

"Why him?"

"I can't tell you that." Severus said evenly. "The danger that surrounds him may very well not be gone. We were correct, obviously, that he was a target. He may still be. But Lily and James made what I'm sure was an incredibly difficult decision to protect you. Keeping you as separate from your brother as possible." He looked at his hands. "When Lily gave birth, I magically adopted you. In every way that matters, you became my child." He took a deep breath and looked at the green-eyed girl beside him. "You _are_ my child. I lived a very private life at the time. We chose a pure-blooded woman who had recently passed to serve as a biological mother to make the story plausible." Severus wished desperately that Olivia would look at him. "There are very, very few people still alive that know that Lily delivered twins. And the ones that knew and are dead did not pass after living to a nice old age."

Olivia had tucked her knees up to her chest and was hugging them and the pillow. She stared at the toes of her shoes. The gravity of the discussion, if not obvious due to its content, could be assumed so by the fact that she had had her _shoes_ on the _furniture_ for nearly 10 minutes, and Severus hadn't mentioned it, or given her a pointed look, or swatted her feet off the cushion. "When you've told me about my mother…" She trailed off, not certain she wanted to know how deep Severus's deception had gone. Or if it even mattered.

"The only lie I've ever told you about her was her name," Severus said quietly. "And I suppose I'm guilty of allowing you to assume certain things, like our marriage. Or that she was a Slytherin. But Lily and I did grow up together. And I loved her very much. I _love_ her very much, since we are being honest. Anything I've ever told you about her is true. I made sure of it." He paused and moved to sit just beyond her toes. "What has never, ever, for any moment, been a lie, is you are my daughter and I love you. And that will never change. I know it's a shock, and I know you're upset. I'm sorry for the circumstances, and I'm sorry that I had to keep it from you, but I'm not the least bit sorry that I have had the honor to be your father."

Olivia's tears spilled over, anger and sadness, and once they started, tears just kept rolling, down her face and soaking the pillow. "I hate you."

"I know," Severus said calmly. That was a phrase that he'd often prepared himself for when thinking of this moment. "I love you." It broke his heart that she was crying. It hurt more than anything she could say to him. He reached out to hold her and she flinched away.

"You should have told me," she accused.

"No," Severus disagreed, his voice flat, dethatched. "You couldn't know. You _can't_ know." It took everything he had to raise his wand, but he knew he had to do it. It was too dangerous for her, too much of a burden. There was a flash of realization that crossed her face as she saw the gesture, but Snape was too fast.

" _Obliviate_."


	14. Chapter 14

The next morning, the grounds were covered in snow. Olivia woke with a headache, which Severus blamed on the changing weather when she asked for a vial of pain reliever. He made a show of putting his hand on her forehead and asking about her throat and stomach, but he knew very well why her head hurt.

"Put on your sweater under your robes," he directed. "The dungeon classroom will be cold in weather like this."

Snape had been correct, of course. Olivia could see her breath as she slid into place beside Hermione. The Gryffindors were sparse. It seemed that a rash of sickness, mostly headaches, had struck the House. Draco turned to her from across the aisle, his eyes on Harry. "I do feel so sorry for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home."

"Don't be a prat, Draco," Olivia narrowed her eyes at the blonde boy.

"Maybe you should take him home with you," Draco smirked. "My father says the Half-Bloods should stick together. They are more likely to have their magic stolen, you know." He looked at Hermione.

"You are such an arse," Olivia made a move to come across the aisle, but just then, the door that connected Snape' office to the classroom opened and he swept in.

"You should be in your seat, Miss Snape," Severus directed, barely looking at the class before he went to the board and started writing directions. "The key to a proper boil cure is the stewed slugs. The last time you attempted to brew this _exceedingly simple_ potion, Mr. Longbottom almost killed half of the class. Hopefully he can refrain from doing so this time so that everyone can actually learn something."

Neville, who was sitting in front of Olivia, went red. Olivia could see the color in his ears and the back of his neck.

"Are you going home for Christmas?" Hermione asked as they started to crush snake fangs.

Olivia shook her head. "My dad has to be here." She carefully added the crushed fangs to her cauldron and lit the fire to heat it, counting to 10 before waving her wand and sitting back to wait. "I suppose Remus will come here."

"That's brilliant, really," Hermione said. "You and Harry can do some research while I'm away. I think what we need is in the Restricted Section." She hissed the last words under her breath.

Olivia did her best impression of her father's eyebrow raise. "What makes you think I'll be able to get anywhere near the Restricted Section when my dad has nothing to do but watch me all holiday?"

Hermione gave a frustrated eyeroll. "Are you a Gryffindor or not?"

Olivia looked at Harry. "You're staying?"

The boy gave a half-nod, half-shrug. "All food and no chores? Of course."

"Is it really that bad?" Olivia's hazel eyes met Harry's green ones for a split second before he shrugged and looked at the table top again.

"Not really. I mean, they mostly just ignore me if I do what they want." He busied himself with pulling his parchment and quill out of his bag. "It's not that much fun, though. Being the freak in the house."

Olivia didn't ask anything else. But the idea of Harry's life festered in her head. When class ended and she followed Severus into his office for lunch, he couldn't help but bring it up.

"Don't you think it's strange that the most famous wizard of all time lives with Muggles that don't really like him?"

Severus frowned. "I may reject the notion that he is the most famous of _all time_ ," he said dryly. "And where did you get the idea that they dislike our little celebrity?"

"He said they ignore him." Olivia stabbed a carrot from her salad with a fork.

"Not enough attention for Prince Potter?" Severus snorted. "Perhaps he has unrealistic expectations of just how much he should be worshiped." He absently pushed his lettuce on the plate. Obliviating his own child. But she couldn't know, he reasoned with himself. Remus and Albus had agreed, it had to be done.

Olivia rolled her eyes. "Father."

Severus mirrored the action. _Father_. It was Olivia's signal that he was acting like a stereotypical Pure-blooded Slytherin father. It was what Draco called Lucius.

"I have to tell her." Severus met Dumbledore's eyes across the Headmaster's desk.

Albus's eyes held none of their usual twinkling. "Absolutely not."

Severus bristled at the authoritarian tone. "Actually… I think they both should know."

"Severus, I don't think you grasp the gravity of the situation," Dumbledore said quietly. "There have been rumblings—

"I'm aware," Severus said tightly. "All the more reason they both should understand how serious their safety is."

"Harry is safe—

"Potter is living with Muggles that couldn't begin to understand what could happen to him. He spends most of his time running the streets like he runs these halls."

"You've been watching him." It was not a question.

"They need to know. And after they know, the only way my daughter will allow me to live in peace is for Potter to relocate to a safer situation."

"Are you suggesting that he leave the blood wards behind?" Albus frowned at the younger man.

"I'm suggesting that he has blood ties elsewhere." Severus honestly could not believe he was suggesting what he was suggesting. Offering to… He had known it was a mistake. 11 years before. A mistake to get so damn intertwined with a child that it forced him to make ridiculous decisions. "They may even be stronger."

Albus was silent a long time. "Where would you start?"

"Hopefully more gently than yesterday," Severus said ruefully, running a hand over his face. "I want to take Olivia home for the holidays. My guess is that once we have a very long conversation, I will be retrieving Mr. Potter as well."

"You understand," Dumbledore said slowly, "that there is no going back once you take this path. Once you've created a home for him, it will be the only one."

"I do," Severus looked past greying wizard and out the window. "Merlin help me."


	15. Chapter 15

Severus had hoped that the anger Olivia had shown during the first time she had found out about her origins stemmed from the method in which she received her information. He had hoped for a less dramatic reaction when he had introduced the information more carefully.

His hopes were not completely fulfilled.

The difference this time, was that Severus had gone through the screaming before. This time, at least, he was able to remind himself that no matter what she said, he was the parent.

"You are certainly entitled to be angry," he said calmly, seating himself in the armchair next to the sofa in their parlor. "However, if you continue to shout, you are going to go to your room to calm down."

"You can't tell me what to do!" Olivia gave him a glare that was so obviously Snape-taught that Severus had a hard time remaining stoic.

"Come here," Severus said quietly. He was somewhat encouraged by the fact that Olivia paused, clearly unsure if he was cross with her. She cared if he was cross with her. "Olivia Eileen, I will not repeat myself."

Olivia looked him warily, but slid off the sofa where she had been curled into an angry ball, and went to stand just beyond his knees. Severus sat forward, taking her wrists in his hands. "Let me make something clear. We may not be biologically related. But that has nothing to do with the fact that I have raised you every single day of your life. And so, yes, I absolutely _can_ tell you what to do. None of the rules of this family have changed. You are my daughter, and I expect you to behave as such. I will answer any questions you have, but I will not tolerate any nonsense about the two of us being less than we've been for over 11 years. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"

Olivia's eyes were full of angry tears and sad tears and pain tears. Two of those only had one cure, and so the angry tears had to be pushed aside as she leaned forward to lean her forehead on his shoulder. Severus's arms came around her, and he guided her onto his lap.

"I hate everything," Olivia said quietly, her voice blurred with tears and Severus's robes.

"I know." Severus ran a hand over her hair. "This chair has seen us through that kind of feeling before." He shifted her so he could see her face. "The time I wouldn't let you go to school like that girl who lived next door."

"That was mean," Olivia turned to put one of her arms around her father's waist. "Just like the time you wouldn't let me get a dog."

Severus snorted. "I swear, the last thing you'll say on your death bed will be 'My father wouldn't let me get a dog'." He squeezed her tighter. "The night I brought you home, I sat with you in this chair." Severus cleared his throat. "And I was terrified. You were so small, and you were all my responsibility. You were in so much danger, but I also wanted you to have everything. And I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do that for you." He kissed the top of her head. "I am sorry that you never knew your birth parents. I am sorry that I had to keep the truth from you. But I am not sorry that I am able to be your father. Never for a second."

They sat quietly, Severus barely rocking the child in his arms. It was several long minutes before Olivia's voice broke the silence. "Where's Remus?"

"Travelling," Severus lied smoothly. "He'll be home in the morning."

Olivia was quiet again for a moment. "Dad?"

Severus took a moment to savor that word before responding. "Livvy?"

"Please don't tell me the travelling thing anymore."

Severus paused, then nodded. "It's not my story to tell," he said quietly. "Remus has his own secrets."

Olivia considered the point, but then a different thought caused her to sit bolt upright. "Harry!"

Severus sighed. "Yes?"

"We can't let him live with those people anymore!"

"Again, ignoring someone and making them do chores is hardly abuse." Severus wasn't sure why he was fighting this battle. The outcome had already been decided.

"It absolutely can be," Olivia frowned at the wizard. "You knew he was my brother all this time and you let him—

"Stop right there," Severus held up a hand. "The entire point of your adoption was to separate you from him. You cannot be surprised that you didn't have bunk beds growing up."

"Okay, but there could have been somewhere better—

Severus's hand went up again. "Potter is safest around someone who shares blood with his mother. His only blood relative is Petunia, Lily's sister."

"And ME. He would be safe HERE." Olivia tried to stand up, but Severus held her in place.

"But if he is here, YOU might not be safe," Severus closed his eyes. "Which means you can expect to be on a very short leash in the future."

Olivia pauses, digesting that. "You mean you are going to let him stay with us?"

Severus raised his eyes to the ceiling. "I am certifiable."

"Can we bring him for Christmas?" Olivia successful broke loose this time. "He can't go home, and Hermione is after him—" She broke off. "Can we?"

Severus looked at her carefully. "Hermione is after him to do what?"

"Nothing," Olivia said quickly.

"Olivia Eileen Snape, you are the worst liar," Severus shook his head. "If we are being honest today, it is a two-way street." He tapped his fingers on his knee. "Out with it."

"We are just looking for information," Olivia carefully stayed outside his reach.

"About?" Severus raised an eyebrow.

"Nicolas Flamel," Olivia said quietly.

Severus frowned. "I thought we agreed that you lot were going to stop playing detective."

"There's something going on, Dad," Olivia argued.

"Things that have nothing to do with you," Severus asserted. "Come back over here." He pointed at the floor in front of him. "Now, Olivia," Severus's voice was a little sharper than before.

Olivia drug her feet to his side. "Listen—

Severus shook his head. "No excuses. Your job to is to do well in school and do what you are told. Anything else is not your business. Understand?"

Olivia dug her toe into the carpet. "I guess."

"None of that," Severus tapped her chin impatiently. "Answer me properly."

"Yes, sir," Olivia examined the fabric on his knee.

"Perhaps we should retrieve Mr. Potter sooner, rather than later," Severus said, looking at his daughter carefully. "Clearly both of you need closer supervision."

"Dad, you can't tell—

Severus cleared his throat. "That, my girl, is where you are wrong. If Mr. Potter comes to live here, he will not be a guest whose behavior is accommodated. If he lives here, he will be subject to all the rules that you are."

Olivia shifted her weight from foot to foot. " _If_?"

"You might need to prepare yourself for the possibility that a young man would have reservations about leaving his current home. Especially for one that is most likely more restrictive." Severus pressed his lips together briefly. "And then there is the matter of Petunia and that oaf she's married to. They have to give up legal rights."

"They won't care," Olivia assured him. "They hate Harry. And anyway, you can persuade them—"

"Olivia Snape, are you suggesting that I use Dark Magic on Muggles?" Severus raised an eyebrow.

Olivia rolled her eyes. "No. I'm just saying that most people are scared of you."

Severus snorted. "I'm not certain that the Dursleys are intelligent enough to be afraid of me."


	16. Chapter 16

"Do you have any questions, Mr. Potter?"

Harry James Potter had nothing but questions. He'd had nothing but questions since the moment he'd been summoned to the Potion Master's office. Those questions had only become more abundant when he'd been informed that he had a twin, and was offered a place in said Potion Master's home.

"But, you hate me. Sir."

Severus raised his eyes to the ceiling. "I certainly hate the threat you pose to Olivia's safety." He took a deep breath and attempted to soften his tone. It was an uncomfortable feeling, especially when confronted with this boy, the image of the man who had stolen his childhood love. Of course Lily had been his adult love as well. His current love. His future love. His always love.

And this boy had her eyes.

"You parents did not foresee this situation when they made arrangements at your birth. Your survival was, of course, their goal, but no one thought that you would survive a direct attack. Olivia was specifically removed to keep her safe from the threat that was you. However," he paused. "The circumstances of your living situation was not at all what your mother would have wanted. Necessary, yes, but not ideal."

Severus cleared his throat. "You are certainly entitled to continue to live there. However, Olivia's blood will provide just as strong wards for you here. Perhaps stronger."

Harry frowned. "What do you mean, her blood?"

Severus reminded himself that the boy had been raised by the worst kind of Muggles. "When Lily—" he quickly correctly himself. "When your mother sacrificed herself for you, she created a blood protection over you. As long as you have a home with those who share her blood, you are protected. It is undoubtedly how you survived the Dark Lord's attack."

"However, Olivia is not the only reason your situation would be safer. You tend to do a fair bit of trouble-seeking, Mr. Potter. You could do with a guardian that would curb some of that behavior."

"I don't—

Severus held up a hand. "You would do well to control your habit of interrupting me, as well as your habit of wandering the halls at all hours. You've lacked anyone to be accountable to, and that would change, should you agree to come under my guardianship."

Harry was quiet for a moment. "Why are you doing this? Why do you even care?"

Severus presses his lips together briefly. "You are my daughter's brother. It seems prudent for you to be together at this stage." He stood and moved around the desk, leaning against its edge, and crossing his arms, regarding the First Year. "Olivia says that your relatives… are not kind to you."

Harry shrugged, "It's not—

"Mr. Potter," Severus interrupted. He recognized that practiced line of a boy who knew that protesting his treatment would do no good. "Tell the truth, please."

Harry wasn't sure he'd heard Professor Snape say the word "please".

"They lock me up, most of the time. At least when I'm not taking care of the house, or cooking. But honestly, if I just do what I'm supposed to, I can usually sneak food—

"They lock you up. Where?" Severus's eyes narrowed.

"A cupboard. Under the stairs."

Severus frowned. "When is the last time you had a physical, Mr. Potter?"

Harry looked at him, confused.

"The last time you saw a doctor to insure you were healthy?"

Harry shrugged. "I had a cough a couple of years ago. The school nurse made Aunt Petunia take me to the doctor, but we didn't go to the normal doctor. There was a free clinic in town, we went there."

"Unacceptable," Severus said, more severely than he meant to. He paused, attempting to school his features. "This conversation, Mr. Potter, has changed the terms of our potential engagement. I must now insist that your guardianship change. Immediately, if possible." Muggles. Locking Lily Evan's son… Severus tried not to think about what the phrase "I can usually sneak food" meant. He went to the Floo, requesting Madam Pomfrey's presence immediately.

"Whatever is wrong, Severus?" Poppy appeared in the office, her eyes sweeping the room for the carnage she thought must be upon them for Severus Snape to call her.

"Mr. Potter," Severus gestured to his guest, "has explained that he has lacked proper medical care in the past. I feel as though it might be necessary for a medical professional to look over him, to see if there is anything we should be concerned about."

"Madam Pomfrey, It's really not—"

"Silence." Severus waved his hand at the protesting boy. This, he knew how to do. Ensure the wellbeing of a child. He wasn't entirely sure how he was going to pull off raising twins, or the deal with the fact that said twins now knew about each other. But he could, in this moment, use every bit of his stern father training. "You will let Madam Pomfrey examine you. You will not minimize past or present discomfort."

Harry squirmed a bit in his chair, but nodded.

"Right then," Poppy drew her wand. "Mr. Potter, why don't you start by removing your robes."

Harry looked warily at Severus. "Could you…" he looked at the floor. "I mean, it's embarrassing…"

It took Severus a moment to recognize that the young man was concerned about what Poppy was going to have him remove next, and imagined himself, at 11 standing before Professor Slughorn in his underpants. The absurdity of the idea very nearly turned the corners of his mouth.

"Of course," he said. "I'll be in my sitting room when you've finished." He went through the door that connected his office to the apartment he shared with Olivia. He closed the door behind him, and looked about the space. The living area was relatively spacious, with a sofa and two armchairs. Against the wall he'd just come through was a small kitchen, the fireplace on the wall across from that. There was a door to the hall to his right, and to his left were three doors, one leading to his private lab, one leading to his bedroom, and then the last door leading to Olivia's room.

Pulling his wand from its sheath, he pointed it at the wall with the fireplace, pushing the stones back several feet. Then he pointed his wand at the newly expanded perpendicular wall beside Olivia's room, and created a door.

The rest of the construction was tricky, due mostly to his not-so-brilliant idea to make Oliva's room linked to her room at home. But in the end, he had constructed a third bedroom. He looked at the empty space and conjured a bed, dresser, and desk. Then a wardrobe. The room looked stark, but Severus had a sudden flashback to Olivia's joy at being able, at key points as she grew up, to pick her bedroom decorations.

Not that he cared about Potter's joy. But a cupboard under the stairs…

The floo in the living room roared to life, and then Severus heard Olivia's voice. "Dad?"

He moved into the outer room, closing the door to the new room behind him. "Olivia? Did Remus unlock the floo?"

Olivia rolled her eyes. "Obviously."

Severus wasn't sure if it had been his confession about her origins, or just that the teenage years were upon them, but he was not at all pleased by the attitude his daughter had been displaying the last few days. He'd tried to be patient, but he wondered if that wasn't the right path to take. Severus had always demanded a certain level of behavior and respect from Olivia. She knew what his expectations were, and Severus wondered if she was testing him.

He raised an eyebrow. "Do you want to try that response again?"

"Not really," Olivia crossed her arms. "You keep the floo locked. It's dumb to ask if Remus opened it."

Severus frowned. "Young lady, you've forgotten yourself. If you cannot speak civilly, perhaps you should go to your room and think about how to do so."

"You don't even get it." Olivia threw herself onto the sofa.

Severus's eyes narrowed. "I certainly do not _get_ your behavior right now." He took two long strides across the room and leaned over to meet her eyes. "If you want to talk about something, talk. But the cheek will stop immediately, or you can sit in your room until you remember how I expect you to behave."

Olivia picked at the fabric on the arm of the sofa, but she stayed quiet.

"Olivia," Severus sat on the coffee table and folded his hands in his lap. "Do I have to call Remus and find out what is going on, or are you going to talk to me?"

Olivia's eyes were trained on her fingers digging at the upholstery. She mumbled something.

"What was that?" Severus leaned closer and put his hand over hers.

Olivia raised her face, and he saw that tears were pooled in them. "Remus sent me."

"Why?" Severus used his handkerchief to gently wipe her eyes. This development didn't bode well.

Olivia wiped at her eyes with her fingers. "I just wanted to see them," she said quietly.

Severus frowned, confused. "See who?"

"Our parents," she said, even more quietly.

Severus's brow furrowed. "What are you talking about?"

Olivia started to cry in earnest then, and so it took several minutes for her to explain the whole story. How she had asked Remus where her parents were buried. How she had convinced him to take her to Diagon Alley, and then slipped away to use the floo in The Three Broomsticks. How Remus had caught her right before she was whisked away and followed her, bringing her back home and immediately sending her to her father.

Severus's expression got darker as the story went on. When she had finished, he grasped her arm and pulled her to stand. "Go to your room." He said tightly. "And think about just what could have happened to you if Remus hadn't been there."

"Dad—

"Olivia Eileen Snape, you do not want me to finish this conversation right now." Severus growled. "Go." His expression was so fierce that Olivia fled to the relative safety of her bedroom.

Severus watched her go, then ran a hand over his face. Perhaps he should have spread this change out. Dealt with the fallout from Olivia before worrying about Potter. He pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. It had been a long time since he'd found it necessary to physically punish his daughter, but this… the lying and the recklessness… he had half a mind…

But the reason… of course she wanted to see the only connection to her parents.

"Severus?" Poppy was knocking on the connecting door. "We're finished in here."

Severus took a long breath and opened the door, trying to focus his attention on the long list of concerns the Mediwitch had found. Missed immunizations, vision problems, poorly healed childhood injuries.

"I can tell you this, young man," Snape looked up from the list. "We have work to do, starting now, to get you back on the right path."

"None of that is my fault—

"I don't remember blaming you for any of it," Severus said firmly. "But in the future, you will take care of yourself. If you are injured, you will seek medical attention. You will eat well, and you will follow all of my rules to keep you safe and healthy." He plucked the pocket watch from his waistcoat and flicked it open. "We will discuss those rules in more detail this afternoon. Right now, you will go to your dormitory, and pack your things."

"Sir?" Harry looked at him, a little wary, but mostly confused at how quickly events were changing.

Severus raised an eyebrow at the child. "You don't think the professors of this institution live in the castle year round."

Harry squirmed a bit in his chair. "I guess not." That wasn't really what he had been puzzled by. Snape was… different… at that moment. The usual borderline hatred in his eyes had been replaced with something closer to annoyance.

Severus nodded, and gestures to the door. "Off then. Be careful not to leave anything. I want a complete inventory of your things so I know what you need."

Eager to remove himself from a situation that could not possibly be happening, Harry stood and exited the room with haste.

Severus watched him go, then, with a rapidly growing headache, he made his way back through the connecting door, across the living room, and to his daughter's room.


	17. Chapter 17

The magic door opened into a space to the right of the room's original door, so that Olivia could enter her room from Hogwarts, but exit into Prince Manor. Originally, the doors had been in the same space, but it caused enough problems of ending up in the wrong place that Severus moved the door and then magically locked the door to Prince Manor, so she was unable to flee Hogwarts without permission.

He rapped his knuckles on the door twice before turning the handle.

Olivia was sitting on the armchair near the window. She had her knees drawn up to her chest with her arms wrapped around her shins. Her long dark hair spilled over her shoulders.

"Alright," Severus said quietly, crossing his arms over his chest. "What do you have to say for yourself?'

The knees of Olivia's jeans were soaked with tears, he noticed as he looked at her. She was so pitiful looking that Severus wavered, struggling to maintain his stance and expression. The Bloody Bat of the dungeons had a desperately hard time seeing his daughter cry. _Nothing happened,_ a voice in his head tried to rationalize. And everything had been so confusing lately, of course she had made a bad decision.

 _A bad decision that could have ended catastrophically_ , another voice said firmly.

"I just wanted to see them," Olivia's voice was small. "I'm sorry."

Severus cleared his throat. "You needn't be sorry for wanting some kind of connection," he said, focusing on keeping his voice firm. "However, the several rules you broke in pursuit of that desire is why you are here. In fact, let's start there." He started to tick off the list on his long fingers. "Using a Floo without permission. Using the Floo _alone_ to go to an unknown place. I assume lying to Remus to get him to take you to Diagon Alley. Not staying with Remus in Diagon Alley. Basically lying to me when he sent you to Hogwarts. Giving me attitude when you got here. Have I left anything out?"

Olivia shook her head, still staring at her knees.

"That is quite a debt you've accumulated, Olivia Eileen."

"Why did you name me that?"

Severus frowned at the muffled question. "Your name? 'Olivia' comes from _Twelfth Night_ , and Eileen was my mother's name. You know that."

But even as he said it, he knew it wasn't that simple. His child's whole identity had been rocked.

Severus paused, looking at the pathetic ball of Gryffindor on the chair. He was torn. Clearly she needed understanding, maybe in the form of forgetting the day ever happened. But she also needed to know that nothing had changed in their relationship, and she knew very well that behavior like she'd exhibited would be met with immediate punishment.

It had been a long time since Olivia had tried to use the floo by herself. She had been maybe 7 or 8, and she had gotten it in her head that she wanted to go to school like the other kids on the street. She was supposed to be working on her school work under the supervision of their house elf, but Olivia had distracted the little thing and hopped into the floo. She had ended up at the Ministry of Magic, where Dumbledore had found her, purely by chance, and taken her to Hogwarts where Severus, his robes billowing to match his thunderous expression, took her arm and marched her into his office where he'd delivered a lecture that left her sobbing, along with a three-game Quidditch suspension.

Their secluded life often limited him when it came to consequences. He'd very strictly controlled her movements for her entire life, so grounding her seemed redundant. When she was small, he'd often resorted to spanking her, but as she got older, he'd traded most of that kind of discipline for blistering lectures.

Severus prided himself on being strict in the classroom and as a parent. A little healthy fear from children kept everyone in line and safe.

In reality, when it came to Olivia, he hated all of it. He hated when she cried, and he detested when he was the source of those tears. He didn't know that he could bring himself to add to her misery.

Severus flicked his wand, stretching the armchair Olivia sat in to resemble something closer to a small sofa. Settling himself on the cushion next to her, he gently tapped her leg. "Feet off the furniture, please."

Olivia reluctantly unfolded herself, but kept her arms tight across her stomach.

"Look at me," Severus was careful to keep his voice low and even. "What you did today was dangerous, dishonest, and reckless. I have to imagine that your disrespectful attitude when you arrived was due to your discomfort knowing that what you did was completely unacceptable." Olivia's eyes dropped to her lap, and he reached out to tilt her head to look at him. The anguish he saw there nearly unraveled him. It surely crushed any hopes he had had of staying stern.

 _Lily_ , he thought, closing his eyes briefly. _You would have done this so much better._ It was a line he'd thought often over the past decade.

"Why didn't you just _ask_ , Livvy?" He tried to brush the tears off her face, but they were quickly replaced.

She shrugged, and Severus raised an eyebrow. She knew very well that shrugging was not an acceptable response.

"I didn't…" Olivia fell into his chest and the last words were lost in the folds of fabric.

Severus gathered her onto his lap before asking her to repeat herself.

"I didn't want you to be upset," Olivia said quietly.

"I told you that you could ask anything," Severus smoothed her hair away from her face and took another attempt at wiping her eyes.

Olivia shook her head, her tears slowed. She suddenly felt exhausted. "Not upset like that. I didn't want you to be sad."

Severus was quiet for a moment. "Sad that you wanted to connect with them? Or sad that your mother is gone?"

"Both." Olivia put her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry. I should have asked Remus."

"You should have asked me," Severus said firmly, but there was no trace of anger in his voice. "It's not your responsibility to worry about me."

"Then who is going to?"

Severus snorted. "Maybe that's why I took you. Because I needed someone to take care of me when I got old." He rubbed circles on her back. "You need to apologize to Remus."

"He's so mad." Olivia pushed her face into his robes.

"You frightened him." Severus said, smoothing her hair. "I was plenty angry just at the thought. You are lucky that I wasn't there."

"Am I in trouble?" Her voice was small.

Severus sighed. "Well, since your decision-making ability has been clearly compromised by recent events, I think you might benefit from some additional supervision over the break." He drummed his fingers on her leg. "When we go home, you will be in my line of sight until I say otherwise."

Olivia rolled her eyes, hidden in his robe. It was one of Severus's favorite punishments as she got older. He tended to impose it when he thought she was distancing herself.

"Actually," Severus said shifted so he could see her face. "I suppose we are home right now. But I have to retrieve Mr. Potter." He looked carefully at her. "You look like you haven't been sleeping," he said gently. "Perhaps you should rest for a little while."

"Have to talk to Remus," Olivia murmured, her eyes drifting closed.

"I'll tell him," Severus assured her, standing with her in his arms. He crossed the room and tucked her into her bed, bending to kiss her forehead. "Stay right here until I return."

There was no response from the already sleeping child.


	18. Chapter 18

Harry Potter stepped out of the floo and into Professor Snape's parlor. If that moment had been foretold by the most trustworthy seer, Harry would never have believed it. He had a sister. And apparently an adoptive father. Or at least guardian? And he was standing in that man's house, even though, until today, he would have sworn up and down that his demise was likely to be carried out by the Potions Master.

Harry wasn't sure what to do with the small box in his hands. Snape had reduced his steamer trunk to something that looked more like the treasure chest that Harry's 2nd grade teacher had used to house prizes.

As if he was reading the younger wizard's mind, Snape strode out of the room, waving for Harry to follow. "I'll show you to your room," he said as they rounded the corner and started up the stairs. "You can feel free to unpack your belongings, but I would like you to leave all your clothing on the bed. We need to determine what to purchase before the coming semester."

"I didn't really know that I needed other clothes," Harry said quietly as they reached the second floor. "And by the time I realized it, I didn't really know where to go, and all my money is Wizarding."

Severus hummed softly. He hadn't been to the Potter vault in a significant amount of time. Obviously, half of that money belonged to Olivia, but he always purposed to raise her without it. He had always assumed that he would tell her of her parentage at a much more advanced age, when she was able to handle that much money. Now, he supposed, he would have to tell her. She was liable to notice that Harry had a large vault of gold.

Severus supposed he was now in control of the entirety of the Potter fortune. However, he had no desire to be Harry's accountant.

"Severus?" There were footsteps on the stairs, and Lupin appeared in the doorway. When his eyes fell on Harry, he froze, clearly without the ability to speak for several moments.

Finally, he closed his eyes briefly and look a deep breath. "Harry. You look just exactly like your father."

Harry looked a bit embarrassed. He was used to being recognized, but this man was looking at him with more familiarity than anyone had.

"Mr. Potter, meet Remus Lupin." Severus broke the awkward silence.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Lupin." Harry was suddenly very aware that he had no idea what to do with his hands.

"Remus, please," Lupin corrected. He looked at Severus. "I was in the basement, I thought I heard the floo. Where's my little felon?"

"Asleep in her room," Severus gestured into the hallway, in the direction Harry assumed must be Olivia's room. "I told her that you would go talk to her."

Lupin grimaced. "It's possible that I was a little too… forceful earlier. Usually I leave the shouting to you."

Severus rolled his eyes. "I hardly have to shout," he waved his hand toward the hallway again. "Wake her and work it out, please. Then we can have lunch."

Remus went toward the door. "How mental did you go? Should I get ready to commiserate about what an overbearing tyrant you are?"

"She'll live," Severus smirked.

Harry continued to stand awkwardly during the exchange. He wasn't totally sure what the relationship between the two men was, but they were clearly used to having these kinds of conversations. It seemed that Olivia was in some sort of trouble, but neither man seemed nearly as explosive as Uncle Vernon could be.

Remus went down the hall, knocking softly at Olivia's door before going in. The dark haired child was indeed sleeping, her head poking out from the covers. He crossed the room and sat down on the edge of her bed, using one hand to smooth her hair.

Olivia rolled over and opened her eyes. Remus could see that she had been crying; her eyes were still red and puffy. "Remus?"

"In the flesh," Remus conjured a cool wet cloth and wiped her face. "Why do you do these things to yourself, hmm?"

"I'm sorry, Remus," the tears threatened to reappear, and Remus gave up all thoughts of staying stern.

"I know you are," he said gently, helping her to sit up. As soon as she was vertical, she fell forward into his chest, and he wrapped his arms securely around her. "You could have just asked to go, you know. We would have taken you. You should never be afraid to ask something."

Olivia nodded against his shirt. "Remus?" She pulled away slightly to look at him. "Where do you really go? Every month? During the full moon?"

Remus blinked. "What makes you think…" He paused and shook his head. Of course she had realized that it was always during the full moon. He'd been her astronomy teacher for crying out loud.

"It's okay if you don't want to tell me," Olivia said quietly. "But we don't usually lie to each other."

That was like a knife in the gut. Remus nodded once, then making a snap decision that he'd known her whole life that he would have to make, he moved her from his lap to the floor. "Come with me," he said simply, and led her down the stairs to the basement door. When Remus opened the door and started down the stairs, Olivia looked wary.

Remus chuckled. "Nothing is dangerous down here right now," he assured her, holding out his hand for her to take and follow him.

When they arrived in the barren basement room, Remus used his wand to tap the wall, showing the door. Then he cast the spell that only he and Severus knew, to conjure the metal key. He unlocked the door, and wordlessly lead Olivia down the stairs.

When they reached the barred metal door, he opened it with another conjured key, and swung it open to reveal his monthly cell. He looked at Olivia, who was looking into the room with interest. "So… you go to the basement?"

"Every full moon," Remus said quietly, watching her face carefully. "Since I was 4." _Well, not this basement_ , Remus amended in his head.

"Why?" Olivia looked at him quizzically.

Remus raised an eyebrow. "Olivia… you're smarter than that."

Olivia looked at the cell again, and pieced together the information in her mind. "You were bitten."

Remus nodded, not meeting her eyes, and closed the door, using his wand to turn the opening back into an innocuous wall. He was startled, although maybe he shouldn't have been, when he felt small arms go around his waist. He let the arm that didn't hold his wand settle around her back.

"Does it hurt?"

Remus sheathed his wand and used his hand to smooth the back of her hair. "Not as much anymore. Your father brews a potion that helps." He pulled away far enough to see her face. "You understand you can't tell anyone. I'm trusting that you're old enough to understand—"

"I know," Olivia interrupted. She smiled a little. "Basically my whole life is one big secret right now."

Remus wrapped both arms around her, rocking a little side to side. "I saw part of your secret upstairs. How do you feel about that?"

"Harry?" Olivia shrugged. "I mean, his relatives are not good."

"Your relatives," Remus corrected. "And just because his living situation isn't ideal, doesn't mean you have to be okay with him moving in."

Olivia listened to his heartbeat. "You knew his parents? My parents?"

"James Potter was a close friend." Remus turned her so she was next to him with his arm across her shoulders. "And I'm certain that Lily would be horrified at her sister's treatment of her son." He chuckled. "I'm even more certain that James is spinning in his grave right now at the prospect of his son living with Severus Snape."

"He let _me_ go with Severus Snape," Olivia said quietly as they started up the stairs.

Remus considered the point. "A clear indication of how much James cared about your safety."

"Well then he should be okay with this," Olivia reasoned. "Harry wasn't safe there. His cousin beat him up all the time."

"You are full of debate tonight," Remus led her into the hall and closed the basement door, locking it.

Severus, coming down the stairs, saw the pair, and looked at the door they just came through. "Olivia Eileen—

Remus opened his mouth to assure him that everything was fine, but Olivia interrupted.

"I'm sorry, Dad. Won't happen again, I promise." She looked at Harry. "Don't go in the basement, he's mental about the basement."

Severus's eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at his daughter, then at Remus. Lupin tried to communicate through subtle dilations of his pupils that the Potions Master should just leave it alone.

His ocular gymnastics seemed to be successful, because Severus cleared his throat and looked at Harry. "Basement rules will be covered in the extensive conversation about expectations that we will be having after lunch. Which _both_ of you will attend." He gestured toward the kitchen. "Wash your hands, and we will eat." Severus looked at Remus, and they both disappeared into Snape's study.

Harry looked at Olivia. "So. Hi."

Olivia led the way into the kitchen. "I guess you aren't looking in the library over the holiday," she said, turning on the water.

"I don't think we'd find anything anyway," Harry traced the vein of the marble on the countertop with his finger. He paused, not looking up from the counter before continuing. "Is this weird for you?"

Olivia shrugged, drying her hands on the towel beside the sink. "Which part?" She met his eyes. "I feel like I'm supposed to feel completed. Like I should have been missing you all these years."

"Do you?" Harry took his turn at the sink.

"Not really," Olivia leaned against the counter. "It just feels weird. There's this whole other life I could have had if things were different."

"You mean if our parents weren't dead? Or if you'd been stuck with relatives that didn't want you instead of living in a mansion? With a dad? With Christmas and birthdays and a perfect fairy tale life?"

Olivia looked at him. "It's not a mansion. And it's not perfect." She'd never known Harry to be bitter, but then again, they hadn't known each other that long.

"Could have fooled me."

Olivia started to respond, but suddenly heard someone clear their throat. The twins spun around to see Remus in the doorway. "Harry, come take a walk with me," the older wizard phrased it like an invitation, but Harry knew immediately that it was an order. An order from this man he'd only just met. From a man who knew his father.


End file.
